Have you heard of the Drake Equation?

Question

Since today seems to be the day for asking about extraterrestrial life, I thought I'd see what everyone thought about the Drake Equation. Basically this equation allows us to predict how many "intelligent" and communicative species there are in space.
it is :

N x R* x Fp x Ne x Fl x Fi x Fc x L.

where N is the number of civilizations in our galaxy able to communicate

R* is the rate of star formation in our galaxy
Fp is the fraction of those stars with planets
Ne is average number of planets per system can support life
Fl is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop life
Fi is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop intelligent life
Fc is the fraction of the above that are willing and able to communicate
L is the expected lifetime of such a civilization.

website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

Check it out , plug in your own numbers and tell me what you think is the right answer!!!

I know that it doesn't prove anything, it was never meant to. The Drake Equation is a tool for speculation. The question wasn't do you think it's worth anything, but rather, what do you think the various components should be? IS there a zero in there? Do you think there should be? I was looking for a discussion, not an editorial on banality.

Answer 1

Yes, I have heard of it. The second link below is an online Drake calculator.

If ...
N=100,000,000,000
Fp = 70
Ne = 30
Fl = 100
Fi = 30
Fc = 100
L = 100,000

Then, there was/are/will be 210,000 communicating species in our galaxy. The problem is when was/are/will they exist. And, how far away are there.

Answer 2

I had an extremely smart teacher and he told me the answe was 10. And he said 10 meaning intelligent lifeforms are able to communicate to each other.





Well if you do the math there is a GREAT chance that aliens exist in just our galaxy. Not in the local cluster or galaxies I think there is 10,000,000. But I may be off a zero. So if you think about it that means there very well may be 100,000,000 forms of intelligent life. Oh yeah all these classify as intelligent life. Which means they have to be able to communicate with each other. So with that many people, or aliens running around the possiblitiles are endless. I wouldn't doubt if little green men are real. Thats all hope that helps

Answer 3

It doesn't matter how smart you are, nobody can come up with the right equation for the number of intelligent species. The Drake equation is an interesting attempt to come up with a number, but some people seem to take it too seriously (I'm not saying you, the asker, are taking it too seriously, just that some people do). We've only just begun to get an idea of how many planets are in the galaxy, and we really don't know how many of those could produce lifeforms, let alone intelligent lifeforms. All it takes is one zero in that equation.......

Answer 4

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Answer 5

Too bad nobody will have any idea what Fl, Fi, Fc, L are, until we find good number of planets with life and intelligence out there. Totally banal and useless equation.

Answer 6

It makes for interesting discussions, but proves nothing. "Banal and useless" is a bit harsh though - I've enjoyed the discussions!