action at a distance

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English[edit]

Noun[edit]

action at a distance (countable and uncountable, plural actions at a distance)

  1. (physics) The concept that an object can be affected, changed, moved, or otherwise affected without being physically touched by another object.
    • 1984, David Layzer, Constructing the Universe, page 7:
      For Descartes, as for Aristoteles, the doctrine of the Plenum rested on two self-evident truths: Nature abhors a vacuum, and there can be no action at a distance .

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