What does the term 'displaced' refer to in optics?

The term 'displaced' in optics specifically refers to a shift of a light ray from its original position to another position. This concept is crucial in understanding how light travels through different media and how it can be redirected or altered due to various influences, such as refraction or reflection.

When considering the process of light, while bending, deflection, and absorption can significantly affect how we perceive visual information, they describe different effects that do not encapsulate the concept of displacement. Bending refers to the change in direction of light as it passes through a medium with varying refractive indices, deflection involves the redirection of light waves without necessarily changing their path, and absorption describes the energy loss of light as it interacts with matter. Therefore, while these phenomena are important in the study of optics, they do not directly correlate with the translational shift termed 'displacement'.