utc by the way the amount of energy the earth receives from the sun is not related to its surface area it's proportional to the solid angle it cuts out of the sphere of radiating energy from the sun even when you calculate energy per square meter of the earth's surface what you're really doing is determining the solid angle formed by an ideal square meter of surface with the sun in a specific position in the sky and distance from the earth none of these quantities can be considered precise or constant enough to worry about fractal scales jun