Optical Axis and Visual Axis
The optical axis is the centre of a lens where light travels through and is not bent. The visual axis is where light travels through the eye to the retina and is essentially understood to not be bent.
Sometimes glasses are given with the optical axis shifted away from the visual axis. This creates a prismatic effect. Prisms can be used to diagnose and treat binocular vision and other orthoptics problems which cause diplopia such as:
- Positive and negative fusion problems
- Positive relative accommodation and negative relative accommodation problems
Read more about this topic: Eyeglass Prescription
Famous quotes containing the words optical, axis and/or visual:
“There is an optical illusion about every person we meet.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I make this direct statement to the American people that there is far less chance of the United States getting into war, if we do all we can now to support the nations defending themselves against attack by the Axis than if we acquiesce in their defeat, submit tamely to an Axis victory, and wait our turn to be the object of attack in another war later on.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“I may be able to spot arrowheads on the desert but a refrigerator is a jungle in which I am easily lost. My wife, however, will unerringly point out that the cheese or the leftover roast is hiding right in front of my eyes. Hundreds of such experiences convince me that men and women often inhabit quite different visual worlds. These are differences which cannot be attributed to variations in visual acuity. Man and women simply have learned to use their eyes in very different ways.”
—Edward T. Hall (b. 1914)