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Equation 6 · Part 8 · From Origins to Frontier: A History of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology

Numerator: p_t(1+s)

pt+1=pt(1+s)1+s pt.p_{t+1} = \frac{p_t(1+s)}{1 + s\,p_t}.
pt(1+s)p_t(1+s)

What this part means

The complete quantity above the fraction bar.

Its job in the formula

pt(1+s)p_t(1+s) occurs above the fraction bar. The numerator is divided by the entire denominator below it.

The passage around this formula

A basic case illustrates the kind of prediction this apparatus makes possible. For a single locus with two alleles under simple directional selection with selection coefficient s favoring an allele at frequency p , one classical discrete-generation recursion is pt+1=pt(1+s)1+s ptp_{t+1} = \frac{p_t(1+s)}{1 + s\,p_t}. This is a deliberately simplified model — haploid, one locus, constant s , no drift, no linkage — and real populations violate several of its assumptions routinely. Its value is not as a literal forecast of any specific population but as a baseline against which departures (frequency-dependent selection, epistasis, drift-dominated dynamics in small populations) can be identified and measured.

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Learn the underlying idea

A fraction a/b means a divided by b. The top number is the numerator; the bottom number is the denominator, and it cannot be zero.

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Sources cited in the article section

These citations provide research context; check each source for the exact claim it supports.