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To evaluate outward flux through the lateral surface of a finite right circular cone, add its planar cap and apply the divergence theorem to the enclosed solid. Subtract the cap flux, whose outward normal points away from the solid. For a cone $r=az$ with $0\le z\le h$, the volume element is $rdrd\phi dz$ and the cap has radius $ah$. The cone's vertex has no unique normal, but is a set of area zero; one can remove a small tip and take a limit when the field is regular there.

The union of the two infinite lateral conical sheets meeting at a common vertex is a double circular cone. The displayed example has axis $z$ and semi-angle $\pi /4$. It is smooth away from the vertex, where its defining gradient is nonzero. A right circular cone truncated on one side is a related bounded solid; this surface includes both axial directions and has no base disks.

For $\mathbf{r}\ne 0$, the dot product equation says that the angle $\theta$ between $\mathbf{r}$ and the oriented unit vector $\mathbf{u}$ satisfies $\cos \theta =\alpha$. Thus $\theta =\arccos \alpha$ is fixed. More explicitly, using the orthogonal projection from the introductory solution,Consequently the surface is one infinite nappe of a right circular cone, with apex at the origin, including the apex itself. The cone's axis points along $\mathrm{sgn}(\alpha )\mathbf{u}$, and its acute semi-angle is $\arccos |\alpha |$. Equivalently, $\alpha$ is the cosine of the angle from the oriented $\mathbf{u}$ axis. Squaring the original equation without retaining the sign of $s$ would incorrectly add the opposite nappe of a double circular cone. No base disk is included in this infinite lateral surface.

Stokes theorem equates the circulation around the induced boundary orientation of an oriented surface to the normal flux of curl:The usual version requires a piecewise smooth oriented surface and a vector field continuously differentiable on a neighbourhood of it. We use the upward orientation wherever the surface is a graph; each outer circle is counterclockwise viewed from above, and an inner circle is clockwise.

Write $\rho =(x^2+y^2{)}^{1/2}$. The surface of revolution has $z=\sqrt{{\rho }^2+1-\lambda }$ with $0\le z\le 1$. For $0<\lambda <1$, it is a disk-shaped cap of a two-sheeted hyperboloid, running from $\rho =0,z=\sqrt{1-\lambda }$ to $\rho =\sqrt{\lambda },z=1$. For $\lambda =1$, it is a right circular cone, $z=\rho$, including its apex. For $\lambda >1$, it is an annular strip of a one-sheet hyperboloid, between the circles $\rho =\sqrt{\lambda -1},z=0$ and $\rho =\sqrt{\lambda },z=1$.

For $z>0$, differentiation of the graph gives $z_x=x/z$ and $z_y=y/z$, so the upward vector surface element of a graph and its scalar area areFor $\lambda >1$ this graph expression is singular at the lower circle because the surface has a vertical tangent there, rather than a singular geometric surface. A regular parametrization isIt proves that the graph surface integral is interpreted by its integrable endpoint limit. The same parametrization works away from the pole or apex in the other regimes.

Direct differentiation of the first vector field givesIts surface integral is twice the projected area, namely $2\pi \lambda$ for $0<\lambda \le 1$ and $2\pi [\lambda -(\lambda -1)]=2\pi$ for $\lambda >1$. On an oriented circle of radius $R$, $\mathbf{F}\cdot d\mathbf{x}=R^{2}d\varphi$. The outer circulation is $2\pi \lambda$; an inner circle, when present, contributes $-2\pi (\lambda -1)$. ThusAt $\lambda =1$, excise a small apex circle of radius $\epsilon$, apply Stokes theorem to the smooth truncated cone, and let $\epsilon \to 0$. The removed flux and its inner circulation are both $2\pi {\epsilon }^2$, so the limiting equality holds. This avoids silently applying a smooth-surface theorem at the cone's nonsmooth apex.

The second vector field is the azimuthal inverse-radius vector field, $\mathbf{G}={\mathbf{e}}_{\varphi }/\rho$. Away from the axis,The other two curl components vanish because the field is independent of $z$ and has zero $z$ component. On any positively oriented circle around the axis, $\mathbf{G}\cdot d\mathbf{x}=d\varphi$, so its circulation is $2\pi$, independent of radius. ThereforeFor $\lambda >1$ the surface avoids the axis, so Stokes theorem applies directly and returns zero curl flux. For $0<\lambda <1$ the disk cap meets the axis, and for $\lambda =1$ the apex lies on it: $\mathbf{G}$ is undefined there, so the neighbourhood hypothesis of Stokes theorem fails. Removing a small circle gives cancelling inner and outer circulations; the inner circulation remains $-2\pi$ as its radius tends to zero. Hence it cannot be discarded as it could for $\mathbf{F}$. A nonzero circulation here is compatible with zero curl away from the excluded axis.

Let $a$ be any constant vector and take $u=\varphi a$. The product rule for divergence gives $\nabla \cdot u=a\cdot \nabla \varphi$. The divergence theorem on a bounded region with piecewise smooth boundary, oriented outward, therefore yieldsSince $a$ is arbitrary, equality of all components provesHere $\varphi$ is continuously differentiable on a neighbourhood of the closed region.

For the side of this right circular cone, the parameter tangents are $x_r=(\cos \theta ,\sin \theta ,\sqrt{3})$ and $x_{\theta }=(-r\sin \theta ,r\cos \theta ,0)$. Their cross product in the outward order isThe sign is outward because the solid right circular cone lies at smaller cylindrical radius for fixed height. Reversing the parameter order reverses the oriented surface element.

To check the integral identity, the closed boundary must include the top Euclidean disk $z=1$, radius $1/\sqrt{3}$, as well as the curved side. For $\varphi =z^2$, horizontal components cancel on integrating $\theta$. The side contribution isOn the top Euclidean disk $\varphi =1$ and $d\mathbf{S}=e_{z}dA$, so its contribution is $(\pi /3)e_z$. The total is $(\pi /6)e_z$. Independently, the cross-section of the solid at height $z$ has area $\pi z^2/3$, and $\nabla \varphi =2z{e}_z$, givingThus the two sides agree. The curved side alone is not a closed surface and does not satisfy this volume identity. The apex has zero area; alternatively one can truncate at height $\epsilon$ and let $\epsilon \downarrow 0$, with the extra boundary contribution vanishing.

The free-body diagram shows a meridional section of the right circular cone. On the first particle, gravity acts vertically downwards, tension points along the straight line to the apex, and the normal reaction is perpendicular to the surface. The smooth mechanical constraint supplies no tangential friction. The second particle has only its downward gravitational weight and the upward tension.

Adding the forces on each particle and applying Newton's second law givesAt $z_1=-r_1$, a normal vector is ${\mathbf{e}}_r+{\mathbf{e}}_z$. Its sign depends on the supporting face of the cone; either sign has zero dot product with every permitted velocity. The diagram chooses the reaction towards the upper side of the surface.

Use cylindrical coordinates $(\rho ,\theta ,z)$. The right circular cone is described by $0\le z\le 1$ and $0\le \rho \le a(1-z)$, and the divergence of $\mathbf{F}=(0,0,z^2)$ is $2z$. Direct integration gives

To check the boundary flux integral independently, first consider the base $z=0$. Its outward unit normal vector is $-\mathbf{k}$, but $\mathbf{F}=0$ there, so its flux is zero. Parametrize the lateral surface byThe cross productpoints outward: its horizontal component points away from the axis of the cone. This gives the vector surface element without separately normalizing it. Consequently the lateral flux integral isAdding the zero base contribution agrees with the volume integral, verifying the divergence theorem. The apex has zero surface area; the vector field is smooth there, so no additional flux is hidden at that point.

In cylindrical coordinates, the surface has radius $r=\sqrt{2}z$. It is the lateral surface of a right circular cone, with vertex at the origin and axis along positive $z$. Its height is $h$ and the limiting upper rim has radius $\sqrt{2}h$; the horizontal disk at that rim is absent. The half-angle from the vertical satisfiesThe upper rim is excluded by $z<h$, which does not affect any convergent surface integral. The vertex likewise contributes no area.

A right circular cone with vertex $O$ selects all directions within a half-opening angle $\theta$ of its axis. Here $\theta$ is measured from the axis to a boundary direction, so the full opening in a meridian plane is $2\theta$. For $0\le \theta \le \pi$, interpret the selected directions as a spherical cap; for $\theta >\pi /2$, this is a region larger than a hemisphere.

The spherical coordinate system gives the area element $dA=R^2\sin \alpha d\alpha d\varphi$ on the sphere. Dividing by $R^2$ and integrating over the cap yieldsThe factor $\sin \alpha$ matters: a thin angular strip near a pole contains fewer directions than an equally wide strip near the equator. Treating equal intervals of both spherical coordinates as equal solid angles would overcount the polar directions.

At $\theta =45^{\circ }$, the solid angle is $\pi (2-\sqrt{2})\approx 1.8403$ steradians, or about $14.64\%$ of all directions. At $\theta =90^{\circ }$ it is $2\pi$ steradians, and at $180^{\circ }$ it is $4\pi$ steradians. For a small $\theta$ measured in radians, the Taylor series $\cos \theta =1-{\theta }^2/2+O({\theta }^4)$ gives the small-angle approximation $\Omega \approx \pi {\theta }^2$. Doubling a narrow half-opening angle therefore approximately quadruples its coverage.

Consider a flat circular disk of radius $a>0$, with its center a perpendicular distance $d>0$ from the viewpoint $O$. The line from $O$ to its center is normal to the disk. Its rim defines a right circular cone with $\tan \theta =a/d$ and $\cos \theta =d/\sqrt{d^2+a^2}$. The solid angle of a circular cone immediately givesFor $a=d$, this is the same $45^{\circ }$ half-opening example: about $1.8403$ steradians. Both the radius and distance enter; doubling both leaves the solid angle unchanged.

A useful local version applies to a small surface patch of area $dA$, at distance $r$ from $O$. If $\psi$ is the angle between its unit normal and the line to $O$, its unsigned geometric contribution isThe numerator is the projected area. For a visible patch, perpendicular projection followed by radial projection onto a small piece of a sphere gives this formula. Integrating counts the directions once provided no direction encounters multiple counted patches. For an opaque detector, use its unoccluded face. At grazing view, the projected area tends to zero.

For this on-axis disk, a ring of radius $\rho$ has $r=\sqrt{d^2+{\rho }^2}$ and $|\cos \psi |=d/r$. Its polar coordinates gives $dA=\rho d\rho d\varphi$, so the same answer follows directly from the surface integral:The changing distance and obliquity are both already accounted for; an extra detector-wide cosine factor would count the projection twice.

For $d\gg a$, the Taylor series of $(1+a^2/d^2{)}^{-1/2}$ givesThus the accepted fraction of an ideal point emitter's isotropic output is approximately $A/(4\pi d^2)$, where $A=\pi a^2$. This is the geometry behind the inverse-square law for a small detector. At fixed $a$, however, taking $d\to 0^{+}$ gives $\Omega \to 2\pi$, so the accepted fraction approaches $1/2$ rather than diverging.

For a chosen numerical example, let $a=1\mathrm{cm}$ and $d=5\mathrm{cm}$. The exact solid angle is approximately $0.122015$ steradians, giving an acceptance fraction $0.00970966$. An ideal point emitter with isotropy and total radiant flux $1\mathrm{mW}$ would therefore send about $9.71\mu \mathrm{W}$ onto the disk. The distant-source approximation gives $10.0\mu \mathrm{W}$, about $3.0\%$ high. This calculation assumes unobstructed propagation and counts incident radiant flux; photon absorption, detector response, and any optical attenuator require separate factors.