In physics, the concept of action has a precise mathematical
definition, as a time integral of the Lagrangian of a system; and
although in physics, too, Hamilton's principle is often called the
principle of least action, strictly speaking the action should only
be an extremum, so it could be a saddle point, for example, rather
than a minimum. However, these technical considerations are not
relevant here, since we use the term only as a metaphor.
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