If it hadn’t been for a good science education, I would have gotten ripped off by night driving glasses I ordered off of Amazon. I have written about the importance of science and good science education before. Exhibit A is an essay I wrote about how I used science to determine the best way to make easy-to-peel boiled eggs. I used the same type of thinking to deal with a current problem. I drive home through the downtown area in the dark. The significant increase in the homeless population makes that drive dicier every trip.
Research convinced me that polarized yellow night driving glasses might help so I went shopping online. I found some well-reviewed clip-ons through Amazon and ordered them. They arrived in a very nice box with “polarized” stickers on the lenses. I eagerly put them on that night and went for a drive around my home in Woodland Park. They made no difference at all. I was very deeply disappointed. I wondered if there was something wrong with the night driving glasses. But how could I check?
Science to the rescue. Polarized lens is simply a fancy way of saying that small lines have been cut into the lens. These lines are like the pickets of a fence. They only allow light waves that are aligned with the groove to come through the glass. All other waves ricochet off. This means that if one takes two pieces of polarized night driving glasses and turn one set of lines at a 90 degree angle to the other, no light can come through.
Since there were two pair of night driving glasses, it was easy to check. I put them at a 90 degree angle to each other and found that there was no change in light refraction. My new Amazon glasses were a fraud. I sent them back along with a scathing 1 star review. My money was refunded and I tried a different brand. Using a pair of clip-on daytime polarized lens I have for fly-fishing, I checked the new pair and voila. There was a significant reduction in light. They didn’t work as well as radar or infrared detectors, but they reduce glare enough to make it easier to see the homeless.
Further research informed me that yellow, night time glasses don’t have as many lines as daytime lenses; therefore, yellow lenses won’t completely darken the way day time glasses will. You can try this test yourself in Walmart or any place that sells polarized lenses. That’s the great thing about science. Everybody should get the same results every time.
However, I think there is more to my story than almost getting ripped off.
The Chinese company that sent me the clip-ons included instructions to contact them directly if there was a problem. They specifically tried to discourage consumers from contacting Amazon or writing negative reviews. When I went back to the online reviews, I saw that most were five stars. The rest were one or two like mine. There were hardly any in the middle. This would have tipped me off if I had been more diligent in my research. Even great products and companies get negative or mediocre reviews. It’s the nature of human nature. Not having them is a sure sign of manipulation of reviews by the seller.
My hypothesis is that the Chinese company is banking on Americans being too ignorant about what polarized lenses really are and how they work. It’s a sound economic strategy. Betting on Americans being unable to perform simple math or science tasks is almost a sure thing. Any country in which almost half of the population thinks the earth is less than ten thousand years old is rich pickings for anyone well versed in science math or both.
The Chinese qualify in spades. Math has been an important part of their society for millennia. And science is not far behind. After the disastrous “Cultural Revolution” assault on education, the government has accelerated its science curriculum.
The Chinese take a much longer view of history, society, and the individual than we do. American companies plan for the next quarter. Chinese companies plan for the next century. Americans landed on the moon fifty years ago, planted a flag, and never returned. The Chinese landed on the moon, planted a garden, and are preparing to live there permanently.
We are paying a price for our short-sighted views on math and science education. How many Americans are getting ripped off buying bogus night driving glasses and other inferior products. But the worst is yet to come.
