Lab Reeport on Hardy-Wienberg

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Introduction The purpose of the experiment was to understand and test the Hardy-Weinberg Theory and to make sure all five assumptions of the theory are met in the experiment. If the Hardy-Weinberg Theory was true than this indicates the population did not evolve. In the theory, it says that allele and genotype frequencies stay constant as long as evolutionary influences are not involved. We, as a group, had to test and observe how changes in allele frequencies affected the genotype frequency of a whole population. From there it would let us observe whether or not the population would evolve. To test the Hardy-Weinberg Theory the whole class was made into a population of randomly mating individuals. We all had cards that represented alleles, and we went up to a random student and mated to create an offspring with either heterozygous, homozygous dominant, or homozygous recessive alleles. The alleles we used were A and a. A null hypothesis is the hypothesis that there is no significant difference between specific populations, where observed differences are due to errors. The Hardy-Weinberg Theory is a null hypothesis and that is what we tested in this experiment. The only time a null hypothesis can be accepted or rejected but cannot be proven. It may be quantified as true, but it cannot be proven. The reason for this is because in tests like these observed differences are usually due to chance differences in sampling. Meaning that, let’s say the p value is more than the significant level of what is being tested or if it’s less than what is being tested. If it is more the null hypothesis is rejected, and if it is less the null hypothesis is rejected in favor of an additional hypothesis. Which is more in the line of saying that it is accepted. The null hypothesis for this experiment was that there would be no changes in allele or genotype frequencies. The additional
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