Final answer:
In the formula for degrees of freedom for a test of independence, R represents the number of rows and C represents the number of columns in a contingency table.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the formula df = (r - 1)(C - 1), the symbol R represents the number of rows and C represents the number of columns in a contingency table for a chi-square test of independence. This formula calculates the degrees of freedom (df), which is an important parameter in the chi-square distribution. Degrees of freedom are used to determine the appropriate distribution to reference when determining the statistical significance of observed differences. The test of independence is typically right-tailed because if the expected and observed values are far apart, the test statistic becomes very large, indicating that the results fall into the right tail of the chi-square curve.