Final answer:
In a study comparing two treatments with 30 participants each, the degrees of freedom for the t test would be 58 when the population standard deviations are unknown.
Step-by-step explanation:
When conducting a t test on two independent samples where the population standard deviations are unknown, the number of degrees of freedom (df) for the test is calculated as the sum of the sample sizes of both groups minus two.
In this case, with 30 people in the first treatment group and 30 people in the second treatment group, the total sample size is 60. Thus, the degrees of freedom is 60 - 2, which equals 58.
Therefore, if you were to conduct a t test on the resulting data from the two treatments, the degrees of freedom for your t-distribution would be 58 (df = n1 + n2 - 2, where n1 = 30 and n2 = 30).