If two genes are extremely close together, crossing over will almost never occur between them, and recombinant gametes will almost never form. If they are very far apart on the chromosome, crossing over will almost certainly occur between them, and recombinant gametes will form just as often as if the genes were on different chromosomes (50 percent of the time). If the genes are at an intermediate distance from each other, crossing over may sometimes occur between them and sometimes not. Therefore, the percentage of recombinant gametes (reflected in the percentage of recombinant offspring) correlates with the distance between two genes on a chromosome. By comparing the recombination rates of multiple different pairs of genes on the same chromosome, the relative position of each gene along the chromosome can be determined. This method of ordering genes on a chromosome is called a linkage map