Re: 50-ohm or 50 ohm ?

["Westra, Kayla L." <13718westr -at- KCPBLDG01 -dot- BV -dot- COM>]

Martin Rowe asks...

The copy editors always add a hyphen in a place that we, the
technical editors, question. Here's the situation.

[ ]  Install a 50-[uom] resistor

or

[ ]  Install a 50 [uom] resistor.

[uom] is our code for uppercase omega.

Check off the box you'd use and e-mail it to me.

The copy editors argue that both 50 and [uom] are modifiers of
resistor and should be hyhenated. The technical editors argue
that "Proper English sometimes makes poor (or a least odd)
engineering notation." I must admit that in 12 years as an
engineer, I'd never seen the hyphen until coming to the magazine.
In fact, when I edit contributed articles, I usually put in the
hyphen just because I know the copy editors will anyway. When I
send edited manuscripts to their authors for review, they almost
always cross out the hyphens, only to have the copy editors put
them back in.

So, what you you do?

_______________________

Our _Standards for Written Communication_ states  to use hyphens (this is
only part of the usage, as it pertains to the above question) ....

"To link ordinarily separate words used in such a way that they form a
single adjective modifier, such as air-filled pipe.  Good judgment should
prevail here, for there are many such combinations which are perfectly
understandable without the hyphen, as are most combinations indicating
measurement, such as 6 inch pipe.  Above all, a document hsould be
consistent in its treatment of a hyphenated word."

To add to this "rule," if a hyphen adds clarity, then use it.  I can't think
of any instance, though, where I've seen a hyphen with a symbol.

Kayla Westra
Black & Veatch
westrakl -at- bv -dot- com

"Illa est causa mea, et ad eam haeso."
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.