Having bad eyesight makes sense, but how can you be “near-sighted” or “far-sighted”?

Question

So I understand we see things because light is reflecting off an object and that light is hitting our eye. It gets focused by our eye onto our retina. So it makes sense to me how someone can have bad eyesight, where everything goes equally out of focus. But how can a person be near-sighted, where light travelling a shorter distance (ie reflected from a closer object) is in focus but light travelling a farther distance is not in focus? And the reverse for far-sighted? How does the distance the light is traveling affect whether it can be in focus? It seems to me like everything should be able to be equally in focus, or equally out of focus

In: Biology

Answer 1

Has everything to do with your eyeshape and condition of your retina/cornea. Look up myopia and hyperopia.