Calculating Degrees of Freedom How is the number of degrees of freedom for Exercises 13 and 14 affected if Formula 8-1 is used instead of selecting the smaller of n1 2 1 and n2 2 1? If Formula 8-1 is used for the number of degrees of freedom instead of the smaller of n1 2 1 and n2 2 1, how are the P-value and the width of the confidence interval affected? In what sense is “df 5 smaller of n1 2 1 and n2 2 1” a more conservative estimate of the number of degrees of freedom than the estimate obtained with Formula 8-1?