Solid angle orientation formula_9, and distance from the viewer as: where the surface area of a sphere is . The solid angle of a cone with its apex at the apex of the solid angle, and with apex angle 2, is the area of a spherical cap on a unit sphere For small such that , this reduces to the area of a circle . The above is found by computing the following double integral using the unit surface element in spherical coordinates: This formula can also be derived without the use of calculus. Over 2200 years ago Archimedes proved that the
Menger sponge itself is the limit of this process after an infinite number of iterations. The "n"th stage of the Menger sponge, "M", is made up of 20 smaller cubes, each with a side length of (1/3). The total volume of "M" is thus (20/27). The total surface area of "M" is given by the expression 2(20/9) + 4(8/9). Therefore the construction's volume approaches zero while its surface area increases without bound. Yet any chosen surface in the construction will be thoroughly punctured as the construction continues, so that the limit is neither a solid nor a surface; it has a topological