solid angle
Noun
Meaning
an angle formed by three or more planes intersecting at a common point (the vertex)
Source: WordNetSynonyms
Hypernyms
Examples
Dedicated backscattered electron detectors are positioned above the sample in a "doughnut" type arrangement, concentric with the electron beam, maximizing the solid angle of collection.
It has the same radiance because, although the emitted power from a given area element is reduced by the cosine of the emission angle, the apparent size (solid angle) of the observed area, as seen by a viewer, is decreased by a corresponding amount.
Instead of the solid angle, the momentum transfer may be used as the independent variable of differential cross sections.
By the same argument, the maximum solid angle that can be subtended at any point is 4 sr.
Definition Section of cone (1) and spherical cap (2) that subtend a solid angle of one steradian inside a sphere A steradian can be defined as the solid angle subtended at the center of a unit sphere by a unit area on its surface.
In contrast, the differential cross section dσ/dΩ is a function that quantifies the intrinsic rate at which the scattered projectiles can be detected at a given angle (where Ω represents solid angle ).