figure) and a beam of particles (in blue) "flying" at speed v (vector in blue) in the direction of the target. We want to know how many particles impact it during time interval dt. To achieve it, the particles have to be in the green cylinder in the figure (volume V). The base of the cylinder is the geometrical cross section of the target perpendicular to the beam (surface ? in red) and its height the length travelled by the particles during dt (length v dt):
:

Noting n the number of particles per unit volume,