Strange Eye Glasses Performance

[mrclose]

Please try to follow my meandering here if possible.😁

Being really, really old I need close up glasses for reading .. the higher the power the better!
(5.0 right now)

Before going any further, I know that I can go to the eye doctor and get bifocals ... this is just a curiosity question!🙃

I also need distance glasses and lost my last pair!
(Yep, near and farsighted)😟

My question: Why do my old pair of Foster Grant (1.75 power) Reading glasses work for my distance needs?
(The 5.0 powered reader's make distances blurry .. as expected)

The 1.75 powered reader's work just the opposite!
(They make reading really blurry)

Without them, the TV or PC monitor are blurs but with them .. everything becomes clear!
How the heck do reading glasses work for clearing up my distance problem?🤨

[mrclose]

Basically: my old 1.75 reader's work for distance only.
(Opposite of what they should do)

The 5.0 reader's work as they should .. for reading.

[GtHawk]

Basically: my old 1.75 reader's work for distance only.
(Opposite of what they should do)

The 5.0 reader's work as they should .. for reading.

Off hand I would say that your distance prescription is 1.75 and near 5.0, I also have same vision issue as you, but I much prefer progressive lenses to bi-focal because I hate having that line in my vision.

[mrclose]

Off hand I would say that your distance prescription is 1.75 and near 5.0, I also have same vision issue as you, but I much prefer progressive lenses to bi-focal because I hate having that line in my vision.

My distance vision is 20/100 - 20/200 and the 1.75 was for reading when my up close vision wasn't so bad.
Basically: my old 1.75 reader's work for distance only.
(Opposite of what they should do. They are up close reading glasses!)

The 5.0 reader's work as they should .. for reading.
(Blurry for distance viewing!)

[Bigun]

I also have same vision issue as you, but I much prefer progressive lenses to bi-focal because I hate having that line in my vision.

  Once you've worn progressives for a while you'll never go back to regular bifocals.

[Cyber Liberty]

Once you've worn progressives for a while you'll never go back to regular bifocals.

Fact.

[Kamaji]

Basically, readers are like magnifying glasses - they're convex lenses - so what this indicates is that even for distance vision, you benefit from a bit of a magnification - basically like looking through a telescope.

[Elderberry]

I was always nearsighted and pulled off my glasses to do close in work.  As I got older I needed glasses for close in, but I didn't need any glasses for distances. For years I have been using Total progressive multi-focal readers from Debspecs. They are 100% power at the bottom, 50% in the middle and 25% at the top. I only need around +0.5 for distance and I'm getting by with +2.0 for the computer. For close in I need much more.