<p>Since there are a lot of clever people around here… I wanted to ask you all about Drake’s Equation. I did some googling on the internet yet was unable to comprehend what I read. </p>
<p>So, will anyone mind explaining it to me? </p>
<p>Please? </p>
<p>:-)</p>
<p>The square root of 69 is 8 something…</p>
<p>I don’t know why you are asking this question in an ACT thread, but I will answer it.
Drake’s equation is a rough estimate of how many intelligent life form are out there in the “Milky Way galaxy”. It factors in:
R* = the average rate of star formation in our galaxy
fp = the fraction of those stars that have planets
ne = the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets
fl = the fraction of planets that could support life that actually develop life at some point
fi = the fraction of planets with life that actually go on to develop intelligent life (civilizations)
fc = the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space
L = the length of time for which such civilizations release detectable signals into space<a href=“Directly%20from%20wiki”>8</a></p>
<p>From these numbers we can get a very very rough estimate of how many possible “groups” of Extraterrestrial life forms that we can come in contact with. But this equation has a lot of controversial in it, and many scientist discard such equation because it just doesn’t make sense.</p>