I just ordered a new pair of glasses. I would have preferred glass
lenses with hot deposited (really hard and tough) AR coatings but
settled for plastic. The optician called around a bit and said that his
few sources are even fewer now. I settled for plastic.
Bill
> I just ordered a new pair of glasses. I would have preferred glass
> lenses withhotdeposited (really hard and tough) ARcoatingsbut
> settled for plastic. The optician called around a bit and said that his
> few sources are even fewer now. I settled for plastic.
>
> Bill
Are glass lenses heavier than plastic? If so, that might explain why
plastic is so popular.
Salmon Egg - 18 Apr 2008 04:03 GMT
In article
<10ac0ca2-dd31-44f1-83f5-e5aff55f81f7@b1g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>,
> Are glass lenses heavier than plastic? If so, that might explain why
> plastic is so popular.
Glass usually is denser than plastic although the difference in weight
is often exaggerated. As a rule of thumb, high density glass has higher
refractive index than low density glass. This leads to thinner lenses.
One time when I was more involved with selecting glass, many of the
higher density glass lenses could weigh less than the equivalent in low
index. This is especially true of large diameter lenses for myopia.
Negative lenses are thicker at the edge. If you neglect the thickness of
the lens in the center, the weight will go up approximately as the
fourth power of the diameter.
In my case, I have had cataract surgery on both eyes. The implants
reduced the (negative) power required from external lenses. Thus, The
weight of my spectacle lenses are muchlower than what they would be
without surgery.
Bill
The Real Bev - 18 Apr 2008 06:36 GMT
>> I just ordered a new pair of glasses. I would have preferred glass
>> lenses withhotdeposited (really hard and tough) ARcoatingsbut
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> Are glass lenses heavier than plastic? If so, that might explain why
> plastic is so popular.
Considerably. They used to be cheaper than plastic, too. Hard to find
and expensive now.

Signature
Cheers, Bev
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Self Test for Paranoia: You know you have it when you can't
think of anything that's your own fault.