Your Equation
If you’re like me, your eyes glaze over at the mere mention of the word equation. Hang in there. Read this post; there’s a chance to pick up a free copy of one of our Pulse of the Planet CD’s.
For the past two weeks, I’ve been in California with three of our Kids’ Science Challenge winners. SETI winner Kamau Hamilton and I met with Frank Drake, who came up a famous equation that now bears his name. It tells us how many intelligent civilizations there are probably out there in the universe.
The Drake Equation provides a means of figuring out the number of extraterrestrial civilzations which might exist in our galaxy. You factor in the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets - stuff like that.
This got me thinking about equations and daily life. You could write an equation about just about anything, couldn’t you?
How many people are eating poppy seed bagels in Des Moines IA? What’s the probability of a woman over 50 meeting the guy of her dreams? How many emails will you receive this week offering to deposit substantial portions of Nigeria’s treasury in your bank account? What’s the likelihood that you’ll sit next to a computer programmer on your next flight, or that the airline will misplace your baggage?
We do these calculations all the time, perhaps not with equals signs and constants, but it’s a sure bet that moment to moment we’re going through some kind of risk assessment, doing the numbers, navigating the probability curve unconsciously.
So here’s the pitch. As a comment to this post, send in Your Equation for whatever question or calculation you find yourself confronting in your corner of the microcosm. I’ll pick one based on originality and mathematical prowess, and send you a Pulse of the Planet CD. Now what are the odds that you will respond?
Tags: equation competition