What is 50:17 vision?help please!?

Question

i went to the opticians today as i have noticed that seeing anything long distance has become more difficult... and also i have my driving test next week and worried about the sight test that comes with that! Anyway the optician has prescribed me some glasses and said my vision is 50:17 can someone please tell me what that means????

Thank you!!!!!!!!

x

Answer 1

weird

usually the first number representss you and the distance in feet you are to the target.

the second number is the distance someone with normal/"perfect" vision has to be from the same target to see it the same way you do.

So in normal measurments, 20/50 means that you are standing 20 feet from the target a person with "perfect" vision has to stand way far back to 50 feet from the target to see it with the same clarity as you.

so flip that... 50/17 vision makes very little sense. the person with "perfect" vision has to stand all the way up to 8 feet from the target (a food menu for example) to see the same clarity as you standing all the way back 50 feet from the menu.

So normally your numbers would mean you have the eyes of an eagle =-)

Answer 2

There has probably been some problems in communication between you and the optician.  50/17 vision is at the extreme limit of human capability.  I personally have never seen a patient who can resolve 50/17 acuity.

Answer 3

From what I have found out, the ratio of 50:17 is starting from 50 feet or possibly meters, and the 17 represents how far you can actually see from that...? Im not 100% clear on vision tests like these but hopefully this might give you a bit of an idea.

I put a chart in the reference section. It doesnt have 50 on it, but you might be able to make sense of it.