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For example, assuming the Earth is a sphere of radius 6371 km, the surface area of the arctic (north of the Arctic Circle, at latitude 66.56° as of August 2016 [7]) is 2π ⋅ 6371 2 | sin 90° − sin 66.56° | = 21.04 million km 2 (8.12 million sq mi), or 0.5 ⋅ | sin 90° − sin 66.56° | = 4.125% of the total surface area of the Earth.
The sphere has the smallest surface area of all surfaces that enclose a given volume, and it encloses the largest volume among all closed surfaces with a given surface area. [11] The sphere therefore appears in nature: for example, bubbles and small water drops are roughly spherical because the surface tension locally minimizes surface area.
If the radius of the sphere is denoted by r and the height of the cap by h, the volume of the spherical sector is =. This may also be written as V = 2 π r 3 3 ( 1 − cos φ ) , {\displaystyle V={\frac {2\pi r^{3}}{3}}(1-\cos \varphi )\,,} where φ is half the cone angle, i.e., φ is the angle between the rim of the cap and the direction ...
The two effects exactly cancel each other out. In the extreme case of the smallest possible sphere, the cylinder vanishes (its radius becomes zero) and the height equals the diameter of the sphere. In this case the volume of the band is the volume of the whole sphere, which matches the formula given above.
Thus, the segment volume equals the sum of three volumes: two right circular cylinders one of radius a and the second of radius b (both of height /) and a sphere of radius /. The curved surface area of the spherical zone—which excludes the top and bottom bases—is given by =.
For example, one sphere that is described in Cartesian coordinates with the equation x 2 + y 2 + z 2 = c 2 can be described in spherical coordinates by the simple equation r = c. (In this system—shown here in the mathematics convention—the sphere is adapted as a unit sphere, where the radius is set to unity and then can generally be ignored ...
When calculating the length of a short north-south line at the equator, the circle that best approximates that line has a radius of (which equals the meridian's semi-latus rectum), or 6335.439 km, while the spheroid at the poles is best approximated by a sphere of radius , or 6399.594 km, a 1% difference. So long as a spherical Earth is assumed ...
An approximation for the volume of a thin spherical shell is the surface area of the inner sphere multiplied by the thickness t of the shell: [2] V ≈ 4 π r 2 t , {\displaystyle V\approx 4\pi r^{2}t,}