more general formulation of effective degree of freedom would result in a more realistic estimate for, e.g., the error variance σ2, which in its turn scales the unknown parameters' a posteriori standard deviation; the degree of freedom will also affect the expansion factor necessary to produce an error ellipse for a given confidence level. Other formulations Similar concepts are the equivalent degrees of freedom in non-parametric regression, the degree of freedom of signal in atmospheric studies,Adrian Doicu, Thomas Trautmann, Franz Schreier (2010), Numerical Regularization for Atmospheric Inverse Problems, Springer (eq.(4.26), p. 114) and the non-integer degree of freedom'' in geodesy. The residual sum-of-squares has a generalized chi-squared distribution, and the theory associated with this distribution provides an alternative route to the answers provided above. See also Bessel's correction Chi-squared per degree of freedom Pooled degrees of freedom Replication (statistics) Sample size Statistical model Variance References Further reading Transcription by C Olsen with errata External links Yu, Chong-ho (1997) Illustrating degrees of freedom in terms of sample size and dimensionality Dallal, GE. (2003) Degrees of Freedom Statistical theory eo:Grado de libereco ja:自由度 no:Frihetsgrad su:Tingkat kabebasan