Polarized sunglasses are designed to reduce the glare from surfaces like water, snow, and glass. They can be highly useful for sports, driving, and fishing by helping the participant in these activities to see more clearly, allowing for the avoidance of potential hazards. While they may be somewhat more expensive than conventional sunglasses, some consumers prefer polarized sunglasses because they selectively block out glare, rather than making the whole field of vision dimmer. Light has many interesting properties, especially when reflected from another surface. Polarized sunglasses take advantage of one of these properties, known as polarization. Normally, a light source produces waves which go in all directions. When light is bounced from a surface like glass, water, or snow, the light waves polarize, meaning that they orient along an axis, which is usually horizontally. A vertical polarizing lens can reduce the brightness of these light waves while still allowing optical information through. Because of their vertical polarizing orientation, polarized sunglasses are ideal for dealing with reflective glare conditions, depending on the angle. Experimentation with polarized sunglasses can yield an angle at which no light is filtered out, because the glasses are horizontally aligned along with the glare. At other angles, polarized sunglasses will filter out some or all of the glare, allowing the wearer to see with comfort and without potential eye strain. Polarized sunglasses are unfortunately not as useful when the sun is directly overhead or low to the horizon, because the angle of the reflected light waves changes from this horizontal configuration.