Someone please lend a hand haha -
Don't see why they're asking to use matrices, it's fairly easy without them (just need a decent diagram).
a) Construct the lunes as follows. Let one of the great circles (call it
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white C_1)
) be the "equator", and let the other one
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white C_2)
start off the same as the equator, and then "tilt" it by an angle
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white \theta)
, so half of this second great circle is in the "northern hemisphere" tilted
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white \theta)
with the equator, and the other half is symmetrically in the "southern hemisphere".
Now, consider the lune in the northern hemisphere with angle
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white \theta)
to the equator
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white C_1)
(note that the other lune in the northern hemisphere then makes an angle
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white \pi -\theta)
, as the total angle measure of the hemisphere is 180 degrees). The area of this lune is
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white \frac{\theta}{\frac{\pi}{2}})
times the area of the lune that goes one quarter of the way around the full sphere (since one quarter of the sphere is 90 degrees, i.e.
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white \frac{\pi}{2})
radians). But the area of this "quarter-lune" is just one-quarter the surface area of the sphere, i.e.
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white \pi r^2=\pi)
. Therefore, area of the lune of angle
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white \theta)
with equator is
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white A(\theta)=\frac{\theta}{\frac{\pi}{2}} \times \pi = 2\theta)
. Similarly, area of the other lune is
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white A(\pi - \theta)=2(\pi - \theta))
.
Parts b and c not even needed to do part d)
d) Draw a decent diagram of the sphere containing three great circles. You'll see two spherical triangles formed, and these are congruent. Note that each spherical triangle is the intersecting area of three lunes, and there are three pairs of lunes,
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white L_1,L_2,L_3)
(so two of each
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white L_i)
is formed by the three great circles). Let the area of lune
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white L_i)
be
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white A_i)
. The angles between adjacent great circles are
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white \alpha,\beta,\gamma)
. Therefore,
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white A_1 = 2\alpha, A_2 = 2\beta, A_3 = 2\gamma)
(from part a)). So adding the areas of all lunes present gives
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white A_\text{excess}=2(2\alpha + 2\beta + 2\gamma))
. This is an "excess" area compared to the surface area of the sphere, because the spherical triangles have been overcounted, as they are intersecting areas of lunes. If we denote the area of one of the spherical triangle by
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white T)
, then
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white A_\text{excess})
has counted each spherical triangle three times instead of once (so in total, 6T has been added instead of 2T we would want to add to get to the area of the sphere)
Hence in total,
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white A_\text{excess})
is in excess of the area of the sphere by
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white 4T)
. That is,
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white 2(2\alpha + 2\beta + 2\gamma) = 4\pi + 4T)
. Solving for
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white T)
gives
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white T=\alpha + \beta + \gamma - \pi)
, as required.
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white \blacksquare)