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Problem : What conditions must be met for a population to be in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium?

1) large population size, 2)no mutation, 3) no immigration or emigration, 4) random mating, and 5) random reproductive success

Problem : Explain why population size is important to the Hardy-Weinberg Law.

For a population to have constant allelic frequencies, it must be large enough that chance is not likely to change allelic frequencies significantly. Large populations are unlikely to be affected by chance changes in allele frequencies, but in small populations, these changes are large in comparison to the total number of alleles and can greatly alter allele frequencies.

Problem : What must be true of mating within a population for it to be in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium?

For a population to be in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, both mating and reproductive success (the survival of offspring to reproductive age) must be random.

Problem : What characterizes a population in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium?

A population in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium experiences no change in phenotypic or allelic frequencies from one generation to the next.
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