Equation 1 · Part 3 · Darwin's Finches: The Beak the Grants Measured for Forty Years
Symbol S
What this part means
the selection differential actually measured on the population in one generation, is the trait’s heritability.
Its job in the formula
S is an input to the expression that computes the quantity on the left.
Full expression→Symbol S→Article meaning
Where the article explains it
where S is the selection differential actually measured on the population in one generation, is the trait’s heritability, and R is the response: the amount the population’s mean should shift in the next generation, if the difference between survivors and non-survivors was genetic rather than purely environmental.
The passage around this formula
Heritability is what turns a measured selection differential into a testable prediction, through the simplest quantitative-genetics identity in the field, the breeder’s equation: . where S is the selection differential actually measured on the population in one generation, is the trait’s heritability, and R is the response: the amount the population’s mean should shift in the next generation, if the difference between survivors and non-survivors was genetic rather than purely…
Learn the underlying idea
A variable is a named place for a value. Its letter is a local label: x can mean position in one formula and a data point in another.
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Sources cited in the surrounding passage
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