In Principle, the Drake Equation Should Enable Us to Calculate

question 21

Multiple Choice

In principle, the Drake equation should enable us to calculate the exact number of intelligent civilizations capable of interstellar communication in our galaxy right now. However, currently this is not feasible because

• A) we do not have exact numbers for any of the factors in the equation
• B) it is impossible for us to ever know the values of any of the factors
• C) we have exact numbers for the first three factors, but not the last factor
• D) we have an exact number for the first factor, but not for any of the other factors

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Definitions:

Variance

A statistical measure that quantifies the spread or dispersion of a set of data points around their mean value.

Percentile

A value in a data set below which a certain percentage of observations fall.

STDEV.P(data range)

A function in spreadsheet software that calculates the standard deviation of a dataset, considering the entire population.

STDEV.S(data range)

A statistical function in spreadsheet programs used to calculate the standard deviation for a sample set of data, indicating data variability.