Drake Equation Expained Simply!

Have you ever found yourself looking at a starry night sky, and asking in your mind “Is there any extra-terrestrial life out there? And if so, how many other civilizations are there in our galaxy, and ultimately, in the whole Universe?” I bet you did! Personally, I did it many times…
Ok, the question is very simple, but what about the answer? Well, you may think that nobody knows it, and that is somehow true, but… you may be surprised to hear that scientists actually tried to answer it by using… a mathematical equation!
Have you ever found yourself looking at a starry night sky, and asking in your mind “Is there any extra-terrestrial life out there? And if so, how many other civilizations are there in our galaxy, and ultimately, in the whole Universe?” I bet you did! Personally, I did it many times…
Ok, the question is very simple, but what about the answer? Well, you may think that nobody knows it, and that is somehow true, but… you may be surprised to hear that scientists actually tried to answer it by using… a mathematical equation!
Yes, you’ve heard it right: there is a mathematical formula that attempts to estimate how many other civilizations there are in the Universe! Curious to hear more about it? Stick with me and I’ll tell you more!

Since the very first moment scientists started to look at the sky, they also started to wonder whether we are alone in the Universe or not. Astronomers always had different (and sometimes, radically different) opinions on this topic. There are several reasonable arguments used by both sides to support their respective opinion.
Those who claim there are other civilizations out there, simply point out to the huge number of stars and galaxies in the Universe, predicting that it’s nearly impossible that there is no other planet with intelligent life except from us.
On the other hand, those who claim we are alone in the Universe, point out to the fact that we have never received any message from other hypothetical civilizations, and this seems very unlikely, because a very advanced civilization should have been able to “show” its presence to us, somehow.
There are many other arguments in favour of one hypothesis or the other. For instance, experts also claim that the average lifetime of an intelligent form of life is very short: so, an hypothetical civilization could have already existed in the past, but it’s now extinct, and this is why we don’t see them now.
All of this is to show you that in order to answer this big question, there are several factors we have to take into account first. But we are lucky: somebody already did it for us!
The guy who did the work for us is Frank Donald Drake, one of the most prominent American astronomers, involved in several important projects for the search of extra-terrestrial life: for instance, you may have heard about the SETI project. He is also the co-creator (together with Carl Sagan, another famous American astronomer) of the “Arecibo message”, an interstellar message broadcasted into space using the Arecibo radio telescope, containing information about the Earth, the Solar System, humanity, and much more, in an attempt to communicate with potential civilizations living far away from us.
But let’s go back to our main question: how many other extra-terrestrial intelligent civilizations are there in the Universe?
As we said previously, there are several factors to take into account when we try to estimate the number of civilizations in the Universe. In 1961, Drake tried to list all these factors, summarizing them into a formula, known as “the Drake equation”.
The equation is very simple: the number of civilizations with which we may communicate in our galaxy, indicated with N, is just the product of this bunch of variables:

Ok I know, that’s a lot of stuff.. but don’t freak out.. just stick with me and in a few minutes everything will be crystal clear!
Let’s start from the left of the formula. The first parameter, , is the average rate of star formation in our galaxy. In simple words, it tells us how many stars form on average in our galaxy. That makes sense: the number of possible civilizations, N, will depend on the number of stars; the more frequently new stars form, the higher , and the higher the chances of other forms of life to appear.
I see what you are about to object…

Video Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:56 Are We Alone?
02:57 Drake Equation
04:10 Second Parameter Of The Equation
06:12 Habitability and Life
07:59 Intelligent Life and Communication
09:07 Longevity of Civilizations

#insanecuriosity #drakeequation #arewealone

[InsaneCuriosity]

Hey Insane Curiosity Squad! If you liked the video, we would love for you to share it with your friends or on other social networks like Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter, etc... (Since the algorithm is not cooperating in showing us to the public 😅). In just 30 seconds, you will greatly help our Channel to grow and improve future contents. A big thank you from all of us.

[Semirotta]

*It makes no sense that humans would be the only intelligent form of life out there. Thinking about how many planets are out there alone in the habitable zone and we can never know what kind of life forms even could be out there.*

[Goiri]

I don't think we are alone. The problem is the distance and the lack of enough technology to find another civilization

[govindagovindaji]

9:04 However, they could have attempted communication (like we did) with us or other potential civilizations; we may still obtain it hundreds of years from now on Earth. It simply took millions of years to get here.

[davidmacphee]

If we are alone, that's scary! Look at us !

[julian]

That's me again enjoying your videos, good videos by the way

[ctedota]

Fermi paradox is even more mind-boggling.

[marksommerville]

Are we alone I the universe? Seriously, people still ask this question. We are NOT alone.

[bonysminiatures]

Part of the equation mentions planets, but does that include moons too, because if it does not that is one major flaw, as their are more moons than planets and even in our solar system they are talking about possible life on a few moons around saturn and jupiter

[philjohnson]

Expain it to me again please! I love pain, please expain it again!

[russthompson]

Consider this, the closest planet that fits the bill is 'Proxima Centauri b' which is approximately 4.2 light-years away. IF it does have life like ours and are at the same stage of advanced technology, neither of us would even know we exist in the first place.

[ForPropertyInvestors]

If a civilisation sends messages how far can those messages travel and what radius span area will it cover?

[haroldburrows]

Any message we've sent ain't made it past the local group yet. Distances r far to great. We will never see any aliens either coming or going

[spacepiratejacen]

What happened? Where is all the scientific material at? w?What a bummer of a Friday morning.😁

[poodtang]

7:35 Fi > On our planet the number could be about or 1 in a million.
6:39 FL > Could be as high as 1/1000
8:17 Fc > Nations on Earth 200, those that have Space Programs 30 > 1/7
9:10 L > 1
N = 1 in 7 billion terrestrial planets in the Habitable Zone.

[garysnewjob]

This video doesn't include the latest information about exoplanets. It now appears that every star has at least one planet. Most have several with at least one in the Habital Zone. The JWST should soon give us even better information.

[michaelkeeping]

It's a guess equation there all variables all those numbers can change meaning something different everytime

[clintford]

It is my opinion that the drake equation is flawed in the oversimplification assumption that what we have on earth is common. I think it is very uncommon.
We have the perfect everything.
We struggle to find even one or two things in common with earth.

[cynicalrabbit]

You provided values for all the variables except R*.
How do you calculate the frequency of new stars? Or at least an estimate of how many stars currently exist in the Milky Way.
I would say lets start with a WAG or wild guess say 100, 000, 000, 000.

[govindagovindaji]

I do not know that intelligence requires water; organic life yes, but not necessarily intelligent life I propose.