Usage: usually capitalized H&W
Etymology: after Godfrey Harold Hardy died 1947 English mathematician and Wilhelm Weinberg died 1937 German physician
: a fundamental principle of population genetics: population gene frequencies and population genotype frequencies remain constant from generation to generation if mating is random and if mutation, selection, immigration, and emigration do not occur — called also Hardy-Weinberg principle
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/hahr"dee wuyn"berrg/, Genetics.
a principle stating that in an infinitely large, randomly mating population in which selection, migration, and mutation do not occur, the frequencies of alleles and genotypes do not change from generation to generation.
Also called binomial law, Hardy-Weinberg distribution.
[1945-50; named after English mathematician G. H. HARDY and German physician Wilhelm Weinberg (1862-1937), who independently formulated it]
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Hardy-Weinberg Law /här-di-wīnˈbûrg lö/
noun
The law stating that, provided mating is random and there is no selection, migration or mutation, the gene frequencies in a large population remain constant from generation to generation
ORIGIN: GH Hardy, English mathematician (1877–1947), and W Weinberg, German physician (1862–1937), who independently of one another formulated the law
Useful english dictionary. 2012.