Solid angle surface area of a spherical cap is always equal to the area of a circle whose radius equals the distance from the rim of the spherical cap to the point where the cap's axis of symmetry intersects the cap. In the diagram this radius is given as: Hence for a unit sphere the solid angle of the spherical cap is given as: When = , the spherical cap becomes a hemisphere having a solid angle 2. The solid angle of the complement of the cone (picture a melon with the cone cut out) is clearly: This is also the solid
Ideal surface Ideal surface An ideal solid surface is flat, rigid, perfectly smooth, and chemically homogeneous, and has zero contact angle hysteresis. Zero hysteresis implies the advancing and receding contact angles are equal. In other words, only one thermodynamically stable contact angle exists. When a drop of liquid is placed on such a surface, the characteristic contact angle is formed as depicted in Fig. 1. Furthermore, on an ideal surface, the drop will return to its original shape if it is disturbed. The following derivations apply only to ideal solid surfaces; they are only valid for the state in which the interfaces