Solid Angle

In geometry, a solid angle (symbol: Ω) is the two-dimensional angle in three-dimensional space that an object subtends at a point. It is a measure of how large the object appears to an observer looking from that point. In the International System of Units (SI), a solid angle is a dimensionless unit of measurement called a steradian (symbol: sr).

A small object nearby may subtend the same solid angle as a larger object farther away. For example, although the Moon is much smaller than the Sun, it is also much closer to Earth. Therefore, as viewed from any point on Earth, both objects have approximately the same solid angle as well as apparent size. This is most easily observed during a solar eclipse.

Read more about Solid Angle:  Definition and Properties, Practical Applications, Solid Angles in Arbitrary Dimensions

Famous quotes containing the words solid and/or angle:

    Children can’t make their own rules and no child is happy without them. The great need of the young is for authority that protects them against the consequences of their own primitive passions and their lack of experience, that provides with guides for everyday behavior and that builds some solid ground they can stand on for the future.
    Leontine Young (20th century)

    The inhabitants of earth behold commonly but the dark and shadowy under side of heaven’s pavement; it is only when seen at a favorable angle in the horizon, morning or evening, that some faint streaks of the rich lining of the clouds are revealed.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)