physical impossibility
1
7.0
- noun
- /ˈfɪzɪkəl ɪmˈpɑsəˌbɪlɪti/
:
imposibilidad física
- This inquiry involves asking first whether compliance with both federal and state law is a physical impossibility.
Examples
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It's a physical impossibility.
Blog text (20) -
In particular, some of the scientists complained about the physical impossibility of a "quick-freeze" or a storm surge-driven tidal wave hundreds of feet tall, and the fact that a thermohaline circulation shutdown would neither happen so quickly nor have such far-reaching consequences.
Academic text (2004) -
This makes carrying the baby and the package at the same time a physical impossibility.
Blog text (24) -
I thought it would be amusing to try to make what everybody knows as a physical impossibility seem believable.
Blog text (4) -
I'm afraid your wild speculations about the prince's mental state... clever though they may be... cannot overcome the physical impossibility... of his committing these crimes.
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Thank you for replying. As a tube, the height of the atmosphere is a physical impossibility. Is Mr. Guy Callendar's 1938 hypothesis unfalsifiable, then?
Blog text (15) -
In fact, he may never even have heard of Bessler and only had a vague notion that all of the experts had declared what he was trying to do, as he perfected his wheel, to be a physical impossibility.
Blog text (12) -
THAT'S A PHYSICAL IMPOSSIBILITY.
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Time travel is a physical impossibility according to the laws of physics.
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Turning water into wine presents a clear physical impossibility that cannot occur.
Synonyms
37
5.3
A situation in which something cannot happen
How Possible
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun phrase is compositionally built from 'physical' (relating to the material world) + 'impossibility' (something that cannot occur), so its meaning — that something cannot occur according to physical laws — is directly derivable from the parts. This adj+noun pattern is straightforward and exists in many languages (e.g. Spanish 'imposibilidad física'), so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily understand it.
Etymology
Physical impossibility links physical (the rules of nature) with impossibility (something that cannot happen), creating the image of an event that would break nature's rules. So, it means 'something that cannot happen because it goes against how the world works'.