- Magnetic attraction - That quality or condition of a body in virtue of which it
exhibits opposite, or contrasted, properties or powers, in opposite, or
contrasted, parts or directions; or a condition giving rise to a
contrast of properties corresponding to a contrast of positions, as,
for example, attraction and repulsion in the opposite parts of a
magnet, the dissimilar phenomena corresponding to the different sides
of a polarized ray of light, etc. - A property of the conic sections by virtue of which a
given point determines a corresponding right line and a given right
line determines a corresponding point. See Polar, n.