According to the principle of independent assortment, different pairs of alleles are passed to offspring independently of each other. The result is that new combinations of genes present in neither parent are possible. For example, a pea plant's inheritance of the ability to produce purple flowers instead of white ones does not make it more likely that it will also inherit the ability to produce yellow pea seeds in contrast to green ones. Likewise, the principle of independent assortment explains why the human inheritance of a particular eye color does not increase or decrease the likelihood of having 6 fingers on each hand. Today, we know this is due to the fact that the genes for independently assorted traits are located on different chromosomes.