The Anti Plane on a Treadmill Thread

[balken]

As one whose background is in quantitative genetics rather than aeronautical engineering, I felt compelled to come up with SOMETHING to else to ponder on this board.

If a man and woman have the ability produce an infinite number of children (from separate pregnancies, not a quadrillion kids from one pregnancy), will they ever produce identical twins from separate pregnancies?

[cyismydog]

If their are an infinite number, then yes. Just like the theory that if you had an infinite number of monkeys on an infinite number of computers they would produce a work of shakespeare. It isn't very realistic though.

[twittkop]

As one whose background is in quantitative genetics rather than aeronautical engineering, I felt compelled to come up with SOMETHING to else to ponder on this board.

If a man and woman have the ability produce an infinite number of children (from separate pregnancies, not a quadrillion kids from one pregnancy), will they ever produce identical twins from separate pregnancies?

I don't have a background in quantitative genetics, but I'll take a shot at this.

There are a finite number of combinations of the fathers and mothers traits that their children can take, let's call this x. Once they have produced x+1 children, they will have identical twins, the only difference being their age.

[besserheimerphat]

Did you know that identical twins DO NOT have identical fingerprints?

[balken]

If a identical twin is defined as having identical genetic material, is this compromised by gene degradation or random mutations or transcription errors that may occur? In this scenario, the "twins" are not coming from the same zygote as in a normal event.

[balken]

Did you know that identical twins DO NOT have identical fingerprints?

Interestingly, in animals which are identical twins, they may not have the same color pattern, but the percentage of total area covered by each color on the body is identical.

[UofICy]

How about this one. If one set of identical twins marries another set of identical twins, will their respective offspring be identical twins?

[jdoggivjc]

I am going to say no simply because identical twins come from the same fertilized egg that split immediately, as opposed to fraternal twins that occur when two different eggs are fertilized by two different sperm at the same time. I don't even think two children that have the exact same genetic makeup yet fertilized at two different times can even be considered twins.

[jdoggivjc]

How about this one. If one set of identical twins marries another set of identical twins, will their respective offspring be identical twins?

No for the reasons I just stated.

[balken]

How about this one. If one set of identical twins marries another set of identical twins, will their respective offspring be identical twins?

This one I can handle - No. While the offspring will receive genetic material from identical pools, the genes contributed to each pregnancy will be different. This concept also explains (or at least is analogous to) the reason that each child from the same set of parents are different. The gene pools for each pregnancy are identical in this case, but the genetic material contributed to the pregnancy varies each time.

[LindenCy]

Cool thread...and insightful (this is NOT sarcasm).

[LivntheCyLife]

There are a finite number of combinations of the fathers and mothers traits that their children can take, let's call this x. Once they have produced x+1 children, they will have identical twins, the only difference being their age.

A little off topic, but this reminds me of the same birthday problem. The number of children before two identicals happen is most likely much less than x although to be guaranteed you need x+1. For example, if there are 23 people in a room, there is a 50% chance that two of them will have the same birthday.

[jdoggivjc]

A little off topic, but this reminds me of the same birthday problem. The number of children before two identicals happen is most likely much less than x although to be guaranteed you need x+1. For example, if there are 23 people in a room, there is a 50% chance that two of them will have the same birthday.

Do you mean simply they share the same day number, same month and day, or same month, day, and year?

[balken]

Do you mean simply they share the same day number, same month and day, or same month, day, and year?

I think this example refers to a shared month and day.

[ISUKyro]

But wait... can the sperm overcome the friction...... ohhh I better stop there.