Degrees of freedom (engineering)

Degrees of freedom refer to the number of ways that an object can move or rotate in space. Imagine you are playing with a toy car that can move forwards, backwards, left, or right. It has four degrees of freedom, which means it can move in all of those ways.

In engineering, degrees of freedom are often used to describe the movement of a system or machine. This can include things like the movement of a robot arm or the motion of a car suspension. Engineers use degrees of freedom to help them understand how a system is able to move and how it might be controlled.

For example, imagine a ball hanging from a string. It has one degree of freedom, which is the ability to swing back and forth like a pendulum. However, if we add a second string and hang the ball from two points, it now has two degrees of freedom - it can swing in different directions as well as back and forth.

In summary, degrees of freedom describe the number of ways that an object or system can move in space, and engineers use this concept to design and understand complex machines and systems.