How does having only one eye affect your vision?

Question:

I'm writing a story in which one of the main characters has only one eye and wears an eye patch. For the sake of realism, I'm wondering what affect that has on your over-all vision.

Answers:
Cover up one eye and find out!
:)
The main disadvantages are loss of depth perception, and you lose about 40% of your peripheral vision.

Other Answers:
You can see wider with 2 eyes.

depth perception mostly

It's puts a lot of strain on that one eye.so it might wear out faster.

Depth perception will be poor. But some people seem to compensate for it well. For example, I've seen a soccer player with only one eye who could hit a header from 40 yds away with no problem. Try covering one eye for a few hours and find out for yourself!

For one thing you lose depth perception. Most of our depth perception comes from our binocular vision. Our brains use past experiences to triangulate distance with two points of the triangle being the left eye and the right eye then calculates distance.
If you really want to see what it is like, cover one eye for a day then do your daily routine. Be sure and include a walk around the block and a simple game of catch if possible. You'll find that judging distance for stepping up or down is off, judging the distance of the ball or Frisbee from the hand and to one side or the other is off, many things you take for granted need to be relearned.

my husband lost his eye in a car wreck years ago but he can see as well as anyone else
Source(s):
my hubby

Cover one eye and walk around for a day. Nothing helps a writer more then real world study!

trouble with distances

I have always had a condition called amblyopia, which is a lazy eye. The other one can be pulled in to 20/20, but without corrective lenses it is like I don't even see out of it. My good eye has deteriorated considerably in about the last ten years. I am now 49, and before too much longer I will probably have to rely on the lazy eye and lenses. I hope I can get lasik done on it so I can see normally again. I have to either wear my glasses now or hold stuff way far away to see it well. I HATE it, and I hate wearing glasses..when I was a kid I used to have to wear glasses and a patch on weekends to try and make the other eye work. I was always falling off my bike and getting all busted up and stung by bees, because with only one eye you have no depth perception. Your over all vision will deteriorate over time because the eye that works gets worn out from doing it all..
Source(s):
Past experience

Balance. Try balancing on one foot with both eyes open. No problem, right? Now cover one of your eyes and see how soon you start to wobble. I'm sure anyone who has lost an eye learns to compensate, but when I wore a patch for a day due to an injury it was a real challenge driving, walking down stairs, through doorways, you name it.

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How does having only one eye affect your vision?

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