2

I am writing a paper. In the paper, I originally wrote

all vertices that are within c hops of a vertex v

but my teacher later changed it to

all vertices that are within c-hops of a vertex v

Here, the letter "c" represents a fixed constant. I wonder what is the difference between them. I frequently heard people say something like "... is within 2 miles of ...". So I think mine is the correct one.

Nathan Tuggy
  • 9,513
  • 20
  • 40
  • 56
Gedt
  • 23
  • 3

2 Answers2

1

I prefer the version without the hyphen.

The variable name should be formatted consistently. Normally this would mean using an italic typeface for the variable.

For example, from Cambridge, statslab

Problem 6. A flea hops randomly on the vertices of a triangle with vertices labelled 1,2, and 3, hopping to each of the other vertices with equal probability. If the flea starts at vertex 1, find the probability that after n hops the flea is back to vertex 1.

(In a Latex source file you would write "after $n$~hops", the dollar signs put TeX into math mode, and the ~ prevents a line break.)

(see also maths stackexchange)

James K
  • 217,650
  • 16
  • 258
  • 452
-2

You know, I think this is more of a mathematics question than an English question.

Adding a hyphen between two words in English is normally to link them. You don't want to link these because they aren't connected words - "c" represent a number, and you wouldn't write "3-hops".

The problem is, "c hops" looks like "chops"!

Why not use some other means to make the "c" stand out, such as italics?

In fact, I'm fairly certain that in maths papers they normally italicise letters in algebra.

All vertices that are within c hops of a vertex v.

Astralbee
  • 100,700
  • 2
  • 111
  • 222
  • The "c" is italic in the paper. So the problem mentioned does not exist, I think. – Gedt Jul 17 '18 at 10:22
  • @Gedt To be honest then, we are second-guessing your teacher's reasons for changing it. My guess is that he thought it looked like 'chops'. – Astralbee Jul 17 '18 at 10:37