{"id":31,"date":"2007-11-12T00:01:09","date_gmt":"2007-11-12T05:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/noahgreenstein.com\/wordpress\/?p=31"},"modified":"2007-11-12T00:01:09","modified_gmt":"2007-11-12T05:01:09","slug":"measuring-fitness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.noahgreenstein.com\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/12\/measuring-fitness\/","title":{"rendered":"Measuring Fitness"},"content":{"rendered":"

The basic premise is to measure fitness in a conceptually similar way to how we measure mass.\u00a0 To measure mass we can use a scale to compare the effect of gravity on a test object to an object with an agreed upon mass, or we can compare the test object\u2019s resistance to acceleration as compared to an object with an agreed upon mass.\u00a0<\/a> These methods measure the \u2018gravitational\u2019 mass and \u2018inertial mass\u2019 respectively.<\/p>\n

Gravitational Mass and Selection Fitness<\/strong><\/p>\n

Measuring an object\u2019s gravitational mass requires a uniform gravitational field, e.g. the gravitational field at the surface of the earth.\u00a0 The gravitational field accelerates things based upon how massive they are: the more massive an object is the greater the force that the gravitational field exerts.\u00a0 To measure the mass of an object it is placed on one pan of a scale and pre-calibrated masses (objects of known mass) are placed on the other pan.\u00a0 When the two pans are level the test object has an equivalent mass to the calibrated masses because they have equivalent forces being applied to them by the gravitational field.<\/p>\n

To measure fitness we require a similar experimental setup.\u00a0 First, a uniform gravitational field: according to the General Theory of Biological Relativity<\/a> ecosystems create large natural selection fields.\u00a0 A uniform natural selection field requires an ecosystem free from disturbances which could skew the reproductive rates of the organisms.\u00a0 Secondly we would need organisms with a standard fitness.\u00a0 A suitable organism would be easily clonable and of a fitness that we suspect our test organism to be near.\u00a0 That organism\u2019s fitness would be defined as one \u2018biogram\u2019 (or what you will).\u00a0 Lastly we would need to see how the organisms fair in the ecosystem.\u00a0 Their fitness will be proportional: if both proliferate (or die off) at the same rate, then their fitness will be equivalent, if one does much better than the other then it\u2019s fitness will be proportionally higher.<\/p>\n

Inertial Mass and Survival Fitness<\/strong><\/p>\n

Measuring an object\u2019s inertial mass is measuring how resistant it is to acceleration as compared to how resistant to acceleration an object of known mass is.\u00a0 To measure inertial mass the test mass is attached to a spring clamped horizontally to a stable structure.\u00a0 The mass and spring are then pulled to one side and let oscillate back and forth: the more massive the object, the slower oscillations.\u00a0 The number of oscillations per unit of time can be compared to the oscillations per time of a known mass and thence the inertial mass can be calculated.<\/p>\n

As above a controlled environment and an organism whose fitness is known (even if by definition) is needed.\u00a0 However the organisms need to be \u2018accelerated\u2019 for this measurement.\u00a0 According to the General Theory of Biological Relativity<\/a> environmental conditions will dictate how a species changes over time.\u00a0 Therefore to \u2018accelerate\u2019 a species a changing environment is needed.\u00a0 Simply put: measuring \u2018survival fitness\u2019 is measuring how well an organism or species fairs in a changing environment.\u00a0 For example a plant that can survive in a wide range of temperatures will be fitter than one that requires a narrow temperature range.\u00a0 If a test plant proliferates and the benchmark organism withers under a temperature swing, the test organism has a greater fitness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The basic premise is to measure fitness in a conceptually similar way to how we measure mass.\u00a0 To measure mass we can use a scale to compare the effect of gravity on a test object to an object with an agreed upon mass, or we can compare the test object\u2019s resistance to acceleration as compared to an object with an agreed upon mass.\u00a0 These methods measure the \u2018gravitational\u2019 mass and \u2018inertial mass\u2019 respectively. Gravitational Mass […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7,8,44,45,26,27,32,34],"tags":[241,292,268,270,275,279],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biology","category-evolution","category-fitness","category-general-relativity","category-measurement","category-philosophy","category-physics","category-relativity","category-science","tag-biology","tag-general-relativity","tag-philosophy","tag-physics","tag-relativity","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noahgreenstein.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noahgreenstein.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noahgreenstein.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noahgreenstein.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noahgreenstein.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.noahgreenstein.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noahgreenstein.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noahgreenstein.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noahgreenstein.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}