Guy Hoelzer  wrote:
> >>> JE:-
> >>> Would Dr O'Hara please expand on his recent admission
> >>> (above) that: "In population genetics, frequency has
> >>> been (mis-)used is this sense for a long time"
> >>> and provide a simple example of such misuse.
> >>> What has been the effect on evolutionary theory
> >>> of consistent long term misuse?

> >> GH:-
> >> To avoid confusion, note that Dr. O'Hara never suggested that
> >> the use of
> >> "frequency" in statistics, and more to the point in
population
> >> genetics, was
> >> ever accompanied by faulty logic in the development of
> >> population genetics
> >> theory.  He merely asserted that the definition of the term
> >> "frequency" was
> >> distorted in conventional usage in this discipline.

> > JE:-
> > Since sbe readers are not necessarily population
> > genetics specialists, could Dr Hoelzer please
> > expand: "the definition of the term  "frequency"
> > was distorted in conventional  usage in this
> > discipline" and provide a simple example.

> GH:-
> First, let me credit Tim Tyler for recently making this departure in
> definition clear to me in an sbe post.
> The traditional use of the term "frequency" referred to the ratio
> of a count
> count of something per unit of time.  An example would be the frequency of
> sound waves.  In much of statistics, and almost exclusively in population
> genetics, the term "frequency" has been used as a synonym of
"proportion."
> In this usage, the frequencies of all parts of a system must add to unity,
> which is certainly not the case for the more traditional definition.

JE:-
Is it not true to argue that the population genetic
misuse of "proportion" represents a case of restricting
"frequency" (in this case gene frequency) to just
a relative measure without reference to a total
measure?

Regards,

John Edser
Independent Researcher

PO Box 266
Church Pt
NSW 2105
Australia

edser{at}tpg.com.au
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