Equation 8 · Part 1 · The Peacock Problem: Darwin's Second Theory and Its Hard Tests
Symbol B
What this part means
the when.
Its job in the formula
B is a part of this expression. Its role is fixed by the surrounding article and by the operations shown in the formula.
Full expression→Symbol B→Article meaning
Where the article explains it
When B is large enough relative to the stabilising pull of , the two equations no longer settle to a fixed point; they feed each other, and and escalate together until some external limit — a wing that can no longer lift the tail, a display that finally costs more than it wins — brings the pair to a halt.
The passage around this formula
…female preference; write and for the direct selection gradients acting on each (natural selection pulling downward, since the ornament is costly), and for their heritabilities, and B for the genetic covariance that non-random mating builds between the two traits. The standard Lande-Fisher formalisation of one generation’s change is then a coupled pair:
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
These citations provide research context; check each source for the exact claim it supports.