The Drake Equation

Organising our ignorance

An interactive lesson with 6 steps, about 5 minutes: you predict, drag and solve, with instant feedback on every answer. It runs in your browser and needs JavaScript.

What you’ll learn

• The Drake equation multiplies factors to estimate communicating civilisations.
• Early factors are now measured. Later ones are still guesses.
• The Fermi paradox asks why we see no sign of anyone.

Steps

1. A chain of factors
2. Make an estimate
3. Optimist or pessimist?
4. Earths in the Milky Way
5. The Great Filter
6. The Fermi paradox