The solid angle, Ω, is the angle that an object
subtends at a point. It is a measure of how big that object appears to an observer at that point. For instance, a small object nearby could subtend the same solid angle as a large object far away. The solid angle is proportional to the
surface area, S, of a projection of that object onto a
sphere centered at that point, divided by the square of the sphere's radius, R. (Symbolically, Ω = k S/R², where k is the proportionality constant.) A solid angle is related to the surface area of a sphere in the same way an ordinary
angle is related to the
circumference of a
circle.
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