Solid angle to the unit sphere with center P, which can be calculated as the surface integral: where formula_5 is the unit vector corresponding to formula_6, the position vector of an infinitesimal area of surface with respect to point P, and where formula_7 represents the unit normal vector to . Even if the projection on the unit sphere to the surface S is not isomorphic, the multiple folds are correctly considered according to the surface orientation described by the sign of the scalar product formula_8. Thus one can approximate the solid angle subtended by a small facet having flat surface area ,
Steinmetz solid bicylinder describes a total of 8 pyramids. The volume of the cube (red) minus the volume of the eight pyramids (blue) is the volume of the bicylinder (white). The volume of the 8 pyramids is: formula_12, and then we can calculate that the bicylinder volume is formula_13 The intersection of three cylinders whith perpendicularly intersecting axes generates a surface of a solid with vertices where 3 edges meet and vertices where 4 edges meet. The set of vertices can be considered as the edges of a rhombic dodecahedron. The key for the determination of volume and surface area is the