The Drake Equation calculates the potential number of what?
Drake equation their existence, must be relatively short. The equation was cited by Gene Roddenberry as supporting the multiplicity of inhabited planets shown on "Star Trek", the television series he created. However, Roddenberry did not have the equation with him, and he was forced to "invent" it for his original proposal. The invented equation created by Roddenberry is: However, a number raised to the first power is merely the number itself. Drake equation The Drake equation is a probabilistic argument used to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy. The equation was written in 1961 by
Drake equation Earth radio telescopes could only detect Earth radio transmissions from roughly a light year away. Michael Shermer estimated as 420 years, based on the duration of sixty historical Earthly civilizations. Using 28 civilizations more recent than the Roman Empire, he calculates a figure of 304 years for "modern" civilizations. It could also be argued from Michael Shermer's results that the fall of most of these civilizations was followed by later civilizations that carried on the technologies, so it is doubtful that they are separate civilizations in the context of the Drake equation. In the expanded version, including "reappearance number", this