Definition:Degrees of Freedom (Physics)

Definition

Consider an oscillating system $S$ disturbed from equilibrium.

Definition 1

The number of degrees of freedom of $S$ is the number of normal modes of oscillation of $S$.

Definition 2

The number of degrees of freedom of $S$ is the number of independent variables needed to specify the configuration of $S$ at any time.

Also see

• Equivalence of Definitions of Degrees of Freedom (Physics)

• Results about degrees of freedom in the context of physics can be found here.

Sources

• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): degrees of freedom: 2.
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): degrees of freedom: 2.