is the degree of freedom always 1 
degrees of freedom are always the number of units within a given set minus 1 it is always minus one because if parameters are placed on the data set the last data item must be specific so all other points conform to that outcome the bottom linesome statistical analysis processes may call for an indication of the number of independent values that can vary within an analysis to meet constraint requirements this indication is the degrees of freedom the number of units in a sample size that can be chosen randomly before a specific value must be picked 