Practice question · Multiple choice
Why is Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium useful even though real populations rarely satisfy its conditions?
Hints
- Ask what it means when a real population does NOT fit the model.
- The model describes what happens when nothing is happening, so departures point to something happening.
Show the answer
B. It is a null model, so deviations from it reveal which evolutionary forces are acting
Why
The equilibrium describes a population in which no evolutionary force acts. Its value lies in the deviations: a population out of equilibrium is telling you that selection, drift, migration or non-random mating is at work.
Practise Speciation and the Origin of Diversity
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