Kinematic coupling is a method of fixing all of these.
The number of these entities possessed by a kinematic chain is given by the Chebyshev-Grubler-Kutzbach criterion. In chemical engineering, a type of analysis named for these entities is used to determine whether a system is over- or underdetermined. Kinematic coupling is a method of fixing all of these. The fact that a map from the torus to the sphere ceases to be covering at the zenith and nadir is the mathematical basis for the loss of one of these things in one phenomenon; (*) that phenomenon, in which two of these mathematical entities couple to one another in a gyroscope, is called gimbal lock. Rigid bodies generally have six of these. Each of these things contributes ½ times Boltzmann's constant times temperature at equilibrium to the total energy by equipartition theorem. For 10 points, give this name for the number of parameters of a system that may independently vary.
The number of these entities possessed by a kinematic chain is given by the Chebyshev-Grubler-Kutzbach criterion.
degrees of freedom [or modes]