Mathematics Help for Star Trek?
So, I'm writing a fic in which Data declares Julian to be his cousin, but I want to make sure my mathematics are correct as this whole thing is rather confusing. Here is the excerpt:
“My creator, Dr. Noonien Soong, was the approximate great-to-the-10th-power-grandson of Dr. Adam Soong, who was the main progenitor behind the Khan project; his knowledge of genetics was the key to the project succeeding. Following his disgrace after the Eugenics War, and the incarceration of his great-grandson, Arik Soong for attempting to follow his great-grandfather’s work, the Soong descendents abandoned genetics and decided to focus on cybernetics. However, this does not remove Adam Soong’s contributions to the Khan project, which - though thought to be destroyed - were used to re-write your own genetic make-up. As we are both descendents of Adam Soong’s intellect, through different branches, I believe this makes us, in effect, cousins, eight times removed.”
Now, these factors are based around the assumption that, from the time of Dr. Adam Soong - the father of the Khan Project - in the 21st century, to Data, Lore, Altan, B-4, and Julian of the 24th century, approximately 12 generations of Soongs have come and gone.
That is, 4 generations every 100 years, which could be off as it's established that, after the Eugenics Wars, humans started living longer and it's highly possible the Soong's would put off having children, but let's stick with 4.
According to Google, this makes Noonien Soong, Data' s father, Adam's great- to the 10th power -grandson.
Now, I remember seeing in a video that Arik Soong of the 22nd century, and, by our calculations, Adam's great-grandson was the last Soong to specialize in genetics, and was incarcerated for attempting to continue his great-grandfathers work. After Arik, the family moved away from genetics and onto cybernetics.
This means that Arik's generation is when the 'split' occurred that makes Julian and Data cousins; as Arik was the 4th generation from our starting point of Adam, that means that approximately 8 generations passed between Arik and Altan, making Data and Julian cousins, eight times removed.
Does this sound right to everyone? I never realized how tricky genetics could be!
