What Is Visual Acuity?

Visual acuity relates to eyesight and is a measure of how well you can see detail. How well can you read a newspaper at different distances from your eyes? Can you read the bottom line of the optician's test board?

If you can read small print at a distance, you have excellent visual acuity.

An interesting feature of visual acuity os that we only have a very narrow field of accurate vision. You can focus on the few words you are reading and they look very clear but the rest of the computer screen is no where near as clear. We see only the very central part of our field of vision in great detail and the larger part surrounding that central point is much more hazy.

In the retina, it is the cone cells that are responsible for visual acuity and being able to see detail. Rods are more useful for seeing in dim light.