If one particle is dependent on the other how can an action on one particle affect the state of another if when you measure a particle, the result you see is based off of something that technically hasn't happened yet?
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Have you tried searching this site for entanglement. This and related questions have been asked many, many times before. – John Rennie Aug 13 '15 at 08:10
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4I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it shows insufficient prior research – John Rennie Aug 13 '15 at 08:10
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possible duplicate of Is there such a thing as "Action at a distance"? – Norbert Schuch Aug 13 '15 at 10:13
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Your mistake was thinking each particle has a state. If that were the case they would not be entangled. What happens is you have a joint state for the pair of particles.
Since it starts out a joint state, when you act on the state you act on a joint state so it affects the joint state.
And yes, what we call an observation or a measurement changes the (joint) state (or even the individual state if it has one).

Timaeus
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There are different kinds of measurements. Some measurements on the joint space actually place the joint system into an entangled state. – Timaeus Sep 15 '16 at 19:27