Real-Life Math
Strong math skills are as vital to this career as good people skills,
say opticians.
"I think that most people would be surprised at the
amount of technological knowledge an optician must have. Most customers seem
to think all we do is [copy] their prescription and send it off. There's much
more involved," says optician Sindy Sipkin.
As an optician, it's your
job to ensure people get the best possible eyeglasses for their money. If
a customer is on a limited budget, you do your best to find the most affordable
and effective solution.
Today, a customer has come to you with a prescription
for a new set of lenses. The client tells you he's on a fixed budget and then
hands you his prescription. His optometrist has ordered a 2.5-diopter prism
base and a 5-diopter lens.
The prism base is a special part
of the lens and the diopters are simply the measurement of the strength
of the lens and prism base.
Normally, a prism base is ground into an
eyeglass lens; however, this can be a costly procedure. A less
expensive way to create a prism base in a lens is through a process called decentration.
Simply put, decentration means placing the optical axis (the center of the
lens) slightly off-center.
You explain this situation to the customer
and he tells you to go for it. He's glad to hear there's a cheaper way to
get the prescription he needs and doesn't care how it gets done.
Now
you just have to figure out how to decenter the lens for this client's prescription.
The
formula for decentration is:
Lens power in diopters x decentration
in centimeters = prism diopters
Using the information on this
client's prescription, figure out how far to decenter the lens in centimeters
and then convert to inches.