Mendel famously discovered the basics of genetics with garden peas. He proposed a law of independent assortment, that the inheritance of different genes should be independent. We now know that this “law” is erroneous because genes that are linked on the same chromosome tend to be inherited together. Mendel (1866) used the following data from a cross of peas to test the predictions made by independent assortment.

The traits yellow/green and smooth/wrinkled are determined by different genes. If independent assortment were true, then the traits of the offspring of the cross should have the following proportions: 9/16 yellow smooth peas, 3/16 yellow wrinkly peas, 3/16 green smooth peas, and 1/16 green wrinkly pea. Test whether Mendel’s prediction about the proportions is consistent with these data.

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Yellow smooth: 315 Yellow wrinkled: 101