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Solid Angle
In geometry, a solid angle (symbol: ) is a measure of the amount of the field of view from some particular point that a given object covers. That is, it is a measure of how large the object appears to an observer looking from that point. The point from which the object is viewed is called the ''apex'' of the solid angle, and the object is said to '' subtend'' its solid angle at that point. In the International System of Units (SI), a solid angle is expressed in a dimensionless unit called a ''steradian'' (symbol: sr). One steradian corresponds to one unit of area on the unit sphere surrounding the apex, so an object that blocks all rays from the apex would cover a number of steradians equal to the total surface area of the unit sphere, 4\pi. Solid angles can also be measured in squares of angular measures such as degrees, minutes, and seconds. A small object nearby may subtend the same solid angle as a larger object farther away. For example, although the Moon is much smaller ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spat (unit)
The spat (symbol sp), from the Latin ''spatium'' ("space"), is a Unit (measurement), unit of solid angle. 1 spat is equal to 4 steradians or approximately square degrees of solid angle . Thus it is the solid angle subtended by a complete sphere at its center. See also * Turn (angle) — the plane angle counterpart of the spat, equivalent to 2 radians References {{Reflist Units of solid angle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steradian
The steradian (symbol: sr) or square radian is the unit of solid angle in the International System of Units (SI). It is used in three-dimensional geometry, and is analogous to the radian, which quantifies planar angles. Whereas an angle in radians, projected onto a circle, gives a ''length'' on the circumference, a solid angle in steradians, projected onto a sphere, gives an ''area'' on the surface. The name is derived from the Greek 'solid' + radian. The steradian, like the radian, is a dimensionless unit, the quotient of the area subtended and the square of its distance from the centre. Both the numerator and denominator of this ratio have dimension length squared (i.e. , dimensionless). It is useful, however, to distinguish between dimensionless quantities of a different nature, so the symbol "sr" is used to indicate a solid angle. For example, radiant intensity can be measured in watts per steradian (W⋅sr−1). The steradian was formerly an SI supplementary unit, but this ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astrophysics
Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the heavenly bodies, rather than their positions or motions in space–''what'' they are, rather than ''where'' they are." Among the subjects studied are the Sun, other stars, galaxies, extrasolar planets, the interstellar medium and the cosmic microwave background. Emissions from these objects are examined across all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the properties examined include luminosity, density, temperature, and chemical composition. Because astrophysics is a very broad subject, ''astrophysicists'' apply concepts and methods from many disciplines of physics, including classical mechanics, electromagnetism, statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, relativity, nuclear and particle physics, and atomic and m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scalar Product
In mathematics, the dot product or scalar productThe term ''scalar product'' means literally "product with a scalar as a result". It is also used sometimes for other symmetric bilinear forms, for example in a pseudo-Euclidean space. is an algebraic operation that takes two equal-length sequences of numbers (usually coordinate vectors), and returns a single number. In Euclidean geometry, the dot product of the Cartesian coordinates of two vectors is widely used. It is often called the inner product (or rarely projection product) of Euclidean space, even though it is not the only inner product that can be defined on Euclidean space (see Inner product space for more). Algebraically, the dot product is the sum of the products of the corresponding entries of the two sequences of numbers. Geometrically, it is the product of the Euclidean magnitudes of the two vectors and the cosine of the angle between them. These definitions are equivalent when using Cartesian coordinates. In mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isomorphic
In mathematics, an isomorphism is a structure-preserving mapping between two structures of the same type that can be reversed by an inverse mapping. Two mathematical structures are isomorphic if an isomorphism exists between them. The word isomorphism is derived from the Ancient Greek: ἴσος ''isos'' "equal", and μορφή ''morphe'' "form" or "shape". The interest in isomorphisms lies in the fact that two isomorphic objects have the same properties (excluding further information such as additional structure or names of objects). Thus isomorphic structures cannot be distinguished from the point of view of structure only, and may be identified. In mathematical jargon, one says that two objects are . An automorphism is an isomorphism from a structure to itself. An isomorphism between two structures is a canonical isomorphism (a canonical map that is an isomorphism) if there is only one isomorphism between the two structures (as it is the case for solutions of a univer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Normal Vector
In geometry, a normal is an object such as a line, ray, or vector that is perpendicular to a given object. For example, the normal line to a plane curve at a given point is the (infinite) line perpendicular to the tangent line to the curve at the point. A normal vector may have length one (a unit vector) or its length may represent the curvature of the object (a ''curvature vector''); its algebraic sign may indicate sides (interior or exterior). In three dimensions, a surface normal, or simply normal, to a surface at point P is a vector perpendicular to the tangent plane of the surface at P. The word "normal" is also used as an adjective: a line ''normal'' to a plane, the ''normal'' component of a force, the normal vector, etc. The concept of normality generalizes to orthogonality (right angles). The concept has been generalized to differentiable manifolds of arbitrary dimension embedded in a Euclidean space. The normal vector space or normal space of a manifold at point P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Position Vector
In geometry, a position or position vector, also known as location vector or radius vector, is a Euclidean vector that represents the position of a point ''P'' in space in relation to an arbitrary reference origin ''O''. Usually denoted x, r, or s, it corresponds to the straight line segment from ''O'' to ''P''. In other words, it is the displacement or translation that maps the origin to ''P'': :\mathbf=\overrightarrow The term "position vector" is used mostly in the fields of differential geometry, mechanics and occasionally vector calculus. Frequently this is used in two-dimensional or three-dimensional space, but can be easily generalized to Euclidean spaces and affine spaces of any dimension.Keller, F. J, Gettys, W. E. et al. (1993), p 28–29 Relative position The relative position of a point ''Q'' with respect to point ''P'' is the Euclidean vector resulting from the subtraction of the two absolute position vectors (each with respect to the origin): :\Delta \mathbf=\ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unit Vector
In mathematics, a unit vector in a normed vector space is a vector (often a spatial vector) of length 1. A unit vector is often denoted by a lowercase letter with a circumflex, or "hat", as in \hat (pronounced "v-hat"). The term ''direction vector'', commonly denoted as d, is used to describe a unit vector being used to represent spatial direction and relative direction. 2D spatial directions are numerically equivalent to points on the unit circle and spatial directions in 3D are equivalent to a point on the unit sphere. The normalized vector û of a non-zero vector u is the unit vector in the direction of u, i.e., :\mathbf = \frac where , u, is the norm (or length) of u. The term ''normalized vector'' is sometimes used as a synonym for ''unit vector''. Unit vectors are often chosen to form the basis of a vector space, and every vector in the space may be written as a linear combination of unit vectors. Orthogonal coordinates Cartesian coordinates Unit vectors may be us ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surface Integral
In mathematics, particularly multivariable calculus, a surface integral is a generalization of multiple integrals to integration over surfaces. It can be thought of as the double integral analogue of the line integral. Given a surface, one may integrate a scalar field (that is, a function of position which returns a scalar as a value) over the surface, or a vector field (that is, a function which returns a vector as value). If a region R is not flat, then it is called a ''surface'' as shown in the illustration. Surface integrals have applications in physics, particularly with the theories of classical electromagnetism. Surface integrals of scalar fields Assume that ''f'' is a scalar, vector, or tensor field defined on a surface ''S''. To find an explicit formula for the surface integral of ''f'' over ''S'', we need to parameterize ''S'' by defining a system of curvilinear coordinates on ''S'', like the latitude and longitude on a sphere. Let such a parameterization be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oriented Surface
In mathematics, orientability is a property of some topological spaces such as real vector spaces, Euclidean spaces, surfaces, and more generally manifolds that allows a consistent definition of "clockwise" and "counterclockwise". A space is orientable if such a consistent definition exists. In this case, there are two possible definitions, and a choice between them is an orientation of the space. Real vector spaces, Euclidean spaces, and spheres are orientable. A space is non-orientable if "clockwise" is changed into "counterclockwise" after running through some loops in it, and coming back to the starting point. This means that a geometric shape, such as , that moves continuously along such a loop is changed into its own mirror image . A Möbius strip is an example of a non-orientable space. Various equivalent formulations of orientability can be given, depending on the desired application and level of generality. Formulations applicable to general topological manifolds ofte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colatitude
In a spherical coordinate system, a colatitude is the complementary angle of a given latitude, i.e. the difference between a right angle and the latitude. Here Southern latitudes are defined to be negative, and as a result the colatitude is a non-negative quantity, ranging from zero at the North pole to 180° at the South pole. The colatitude corresponds to the conventional 3D polar angle in spherical coordinates, as opposed to the latitude as used in cartography. Examples Latitude and colatitude sum up to 90°. Astronomical use The colatitude is most useful in astronomy because it refers to the zenith distance of the celestial poles. For example, at latitude 42°N, Polaris (approximately on the North celestial pole) has an altitude of 42°, so the distance from the zenith (overhead point) to Polaris is . Adding the declination of a star to the observer's colatitude gives the maximum latitude of that star (its angle from the horizon at culmination or upper transit). For ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Differential Of A Function
In calculus, the differential represents the principal part of the change in a function ''y'' = ''f''(''x'') with respect to changes in the independent variable. The differential ''dy'' is defined by :dy = f'(x)\,dx, where f'(x) is the derivative of ''f'' with respect to ''x'', and ''dx'' is an additional real variable (so that ''dy'' is a function of ''x'' and ''dx''). The notation is such that the equation :dy = \frac\, dx holds, where the derivative is represented in the Leibniz notation ''dy''/''dx'', and this is consistent with regarding the derivative as the quotient of the differentials. One also writes :df(x) = f'(x)\,dx. The precise meaning of the variables ''dy'' and ''dx'' depends on the context of the application and the required level of mathematical rigor. The domain of these variables may take on a particular geometrical significance if the differential is regarded as a particular differential form, or analytical significance if the differential is re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
