- #1
sh86
- 19
- 0
"Degrees of freedom" for lines
I'm reading something about "degrees of freedom" trying to learn what exactly it means, and there's this one sentence I'm running into that I can't really understand...
What is this "the two independent ratios {a : b : c}" ?
They talk a lot about how a line on a plane is represented by the equation [tex]ax+by+c=0[/tex]. But I know from learning about [tex]y=mx+b[/tex] in grade school that you only need two numbers to specify a line.. If anybody could explain that sentence to me I'd really appreciate it.
I'm reading something about "degrees of freedom" trying to learn what exactly it means, and there's this one sentence I'm running into that I can't really understand...
A line is specified by two parameters (the two independent ratios [tex]\{a : b : c\}[/tex]) and so has two degrees of freedom.
What is this "the two independent ratios {a : b : c}" ?
They talk a lot about how a line on a plane is represented by the equation [tex]ax+by+c=0[/tex]. But I know from learning about [tex]y=mx+b[/tex] in grade school that you only need two numbers to specify a line.. If anybody could explain that sentence to me I'd really appreciate it.