Omitting the prepositional phrase.

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Mephorium

#48188 Thu, 30 Sep 04 08:21 AM

In the sentence "We used thirty-six megawatts of electricity and a liquid helium chilled supercapacitor to teleport a sewing needle through twenty feet of lead," can the prepositional phrase "of electricity" be omitted if a megawatt is understood to be a measure of electric power?

If so, is it merely a matter of style; will including it cause redundancy?

Mephorium

Joined on Sun, Sep 26 2004

New Member (33)

CalifJim

#48194 Thu, 30 Sep 04 08:53 AM

In each pair of sentences below, the first sentence uses a unit of measure that is unambiguous enough to predict the entity being measured from general knowledge or from context. Nevertheless, it is far more common (and perfectly acceptable in my opinion) to add the entity being measured explicitly, regardless of any possible redundancy.

Our division of the company is allotted 50 reams a month.
Our division of the company is allotted 50 reams of paper a month.

We bought two loaves yesterday.
We bought two loaves of bread yesterday.

I bought six rolls for my camera.
I bought six rolls of film for my camera.

I would not be at all averse to including "of electricity" in the example you cite.

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (17,781)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Mephorium

#48198 Thu, 30 Sep 04 09:14 AM

Thank you, Jim.

Mephorium