Dear Mr.

Thanks for the great site. I've a question in Physical optics for pre-pharmacy students.
My question is, sunlight strikes a solar panel communication satellite at an angle of 65 degrees and at a power of 3200 watts, what's the power and intensity when the angle becomes 35 degrees instead of 65?

Regards,
Dina A. Saeed

The power of the incident solar radiation is proportional to th apparent size of the array as "seen" by the sun. This apparent size is A*cos(angle), where A is the array's true size and "angle" is the angle of incidence to the sun. I am assuming here that the nagle is measured from the perpendicular axis of the array, so that if the angle is 0 degrees the solar array is full face on towards the sun. So the ratio of power given the two conditions are:

x watts/3200 watts = cos(35 degrees)/cos(65 degrees).

Solve for x.