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Equation 1 · Part 3 · Who Builds 2100? The Demographic Engine of Technological Evolution

Symbol n

gA=λn1−ϕg_A = \frac{\lambda n}{1-\phi}
nn

What this part means

n occurs above the fraction bar. The numerator is divided by the entire denominator below it.

Its job in the formula

n occurs above the fraction bar. The numerator is divided by the entire denominator below it.

The passage around this formula

…growth, discounted by how much duplicated effort dilutes the return to any one searcher and by how much each new discovery makes the next one to find. The canonical form of the relationship is gA=λn1−ϕg_A = \frac{\lambda n}{1-\phi}. where n is the growth rate of the population of researchers, ϕ\phi measures how much easier or harder each new idea makes the next one to find (values below 1 are required for the model’s growth path to be stable at all — the discipline’s own name for this is diminishing returns to knowledge…

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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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