Question

How do you determine the resolving power of your eye?

Answer 1

HintIt is basically done by a process called Retinoscopy. In this an instrument, designed to see the reflexes of an intramolecular line is used. Light is flashed on the pupil and the reflex of the lens is observed.

Complete step-by-step solution:
Resolving power is defined as the ability of the eye, or any optical instrument, to differentiate between two distinct points or lines. It is actually expressed as an angle of separation that radiates in outward direction from the eye or instrument. When resolving power is expressed as an angle, simple geometry allows us to find the relationships between viewing distance and line or point separations.
A person’s eyes are capable of resolving two lines that are 1 mm apart from a distance of 34 feet. The actual resolving power of the human eye with 20/20 vision, which is normal vision, is basically considered to be about one arc minute or 60 arc seconds, which is about one-third of the resolution we just calculated above depends only on the diameter of the pupil. In fact, it is more complicated than this.
The diffraction limit of the eye can be calculated using a relation called Rayleigh's criterion which states
The Angular resolution is given by where the wavelength of light (on an average, 500 nm) and D is the diameter of the eye's pupil, which is about 5 mm inside. This calculation leads to an angular resolution of about 0.008 degrees. If your eyes might resolve images at the diffraction limit, you might be able to resolve the lines in the printed pattern at a distance of 15 m.

Note: Retinoscopy (also known as Ret) is a process to obtain an objective measurement of the refractive error of defective eyes. The doctor uses an instrument called retinoscope to flash light into the patient's eye and observes the reflection (reflex) which comes out of the patient's retina. During the movement of the spot of light across the pupil the doctor observes the relative movement of the reflex or manually places lenses over the eye (using a temporary frame and temporary lenses) to "neutralize" the reflex.