title: Calculation of the average solid angle subtended by a detector to source in a parallel plane by a Monte Carlo method.
abstract: A short computer program is described for a PC which uses a Monte Carlo method to calculate the average solid angle subtended by a rectangular or circular detector window to a coaxial or non-coaxial rectangular, circular or point source. The advantage of the Monte Carlo method is that it allows the calculation of average solid angle for source-detector geometries that are difficult to analyse by analytical methods. The values of solid angle are calculated to accuracies of typically better than 0.1%. The calculated values from the Monte Carlo method agree closely with those produced by polygon approximation and numerical integration by Gardner and Verghese, and others.
authors.affiliation: West Sussex County Council, County Hall, Chichester, PO19 IRF, UK. ralph.whitcher@westsussex.gov.uk
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Whitcher
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D004583:Electrons; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D017785:Photons; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity