Benefits of polarized sunglasses
Many manufacturers of high quality sunglasses boast of their polarized lenses, but they rarely explain what that means or how the benefits of polarized sunglasses are achieved. At Mountain Eye Care, we carry a very large selection of sunglasses from some of the world’s most widely known brands! It’s always a good idea to make sure your prescription sunglasses are of the best quality, both in the build materials, and the lenses. If you are wondering about the benefits of polarized sunglasses, then you’ve come to the right place! In this article, we will be talking about a few of these benefits.
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How does polarization even work?
Light moves as a wave, just like waves of water on the surface of the ocean. Water waves, however, are usually all oriented vertically; while they might travel in different directions, the oscillation (or vibration) is always vertical. Water waves naturally have one polarization. Light waves, on the other hand, do not.
A beam of light traveling parallel to the ground can vibrate horizontally, vertically, or at any of the diagonal angles in between. When light hits a surface like glass, water, or snow, the surface reflects more light that is horizontally polarized. A polarizing lens filters out light that is vibrating in a certain direction. For sunglasses, that direction is horizontal, in order to filter out glare from reflective surfaces. Polarized sunglasses actually filter out a whole wide range of polarizations and only let light through that is vertically (or close to vertically) polarized.
The benefits of polarized sunglasses
Polarized lenses are great for reducing glare, light reflected off snow, water, or other shiny surfaces. This makes them ideal for snow sports like skiing and water sports like fishing or canoeing. They are also useful for driving, as they are particularly effective at reducing glare on wet roads.
The most important factor in choosing sunglasses is UV protection. Polarization and UV blocking are mostly unrelated, so not all polarized lenses have the UV blocking. When buying glasses with polarized lenses make sure to always check for UV protection as well.
At Mountain Eye Care, we take great pride in our selection of quality branded sunglasses. We have something for everyone at our facility, and our vision specialists can get you fitted with the right sunglasses for your face shape!
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