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By Dean Norman

I watched a TV show called Intelligent Life on Other Planets: What Are the Odds?

The professor showed a very complicated math formula to figure the chances that intelligent life exists on planets besides Earth. Many parts of the formula could not have numbers put into them, so the formula was useless.

I am not a math expert. But I can go as far as simple algebra to figure the size of a cartoon drawing if it is reduced to fit a space in magazine. There is a very simple math formula that anybody can use to prove that life must exist on lots of other planets. 1=billions and billions.

People used to think there was only one sun. When they made telescopes, they found out that the stars were suns. They made better telescopes, and found out there was more than one galaxy of stars in the universe. Every time they made better telescopes, and found one new thing, then they discovered billions of those new things. Quasars, black holes, etc. They found another sun that had a planet, and then more and more suns that had planets.

Astronomers have discovered a planet that has intelligent life. Planet Earth. So it is mathematically certain that there are billions and billions of planets in the universe with intelligent life. They have never found only one of anything. When they make a better telescope, they will begin to find more planets with people living on them.

— Dean Norman 

Dean Norman is a cartoonist and humor writer, whose work has appeared in greeting cards,The New Yorker, MAD Magazine, The Cleveland Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine and The Kansas City Star. He's also written comedy for cartoon shows and written and illustrated children's books. He illustrated a cartoon book for Cleveland Metroparks, Cleveland Metroparks Adventures.