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20/20 Vision History

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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to not be able to see any of the world around you? Well this happened to be the case about 750 years ago, it was estimated that 285 million people are vision impaired then and didn’t even know it. That’s 75% of the human population. How did these people see from way back then? It wasn’t until reading and books that this became a problem for people who didn’t have 20/20 vision. 20/20 vision is when a person supposedly has perfect vision and can see the normal distance of 20 feet. But it was for people who didn’t. We can trace this all the way back to the Egyptians. Based on old drawings, it is known that in 2700 B.C. the egyptians were already able to grind and polish sand into glass surfaces. …show more content…

There were scientists that explored the laws of optics there. Records exist which describe their investigation in this field. It is also said that Emperor Nero watched gladiator fights by holding a green emeral to his eye while watching gladiator games. But, it was it was later discovered that he only did this to protect his eyes from the sun. Just an expensive pair of sunglasses. The romans knew that a certain combination of glass and water have different effects magnification. They also knew that knew about the effects of light refraction. The problem was they were not able to use this knowledge to develop …show more content…

About 200 years later there was the invention of the printing press in 1452. More and more books and articles were being made so this really influenced the outburst of glasses and new designs.But, only a few years later, a different design was being sketched out.
It’s inventor was the same person that painted the Mona Lisa and the Last supper, Leonardo da Vinci. He was an extremely creative person and it showed. Art historian Helana Gardner, says “The scope and depth of his interests were without precedent in recorded history, and his mind and personality seem to us to be superhuman, while the man himself mysterious and remote.” He was considered the prime example of the “Universal Genius’, and “The Renaissance Man”. He, in fact, drew the first sketches in 1508.
When you think about Contact lenses, you probably don’t picture wearing a bowl of water on your head, but weirdly enough, that’s actually how they began. In 1508, da Vinci wrote a book called the “Codex of the Eye”. He theorized that by submerging a person’s head into a bowl of water, it could alter alter vision. And it did! So instead of having somebody walk around with a bowl of water in order to see, he reduced the size to a small tube ( basically the ones used in science). The water would come in direct “contact” with the eye and allow the individual to see. That is how contacts got their

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