glue blocks

glue blocks

Hyphens Are Word Glue

Hyphens connect multiple words to make one word. They often have a significant impact on the meaning of the word. Sometimes they turn a verb phrase into a noun. Sometimes they connect several words to make an adjective. For example:

Set-Up

Set up is a verb phrase composed of the verb set and the adverb up.  Up tells you in what direction the item was set.

Set-up is a noun phrase describing a thing that has been set up.  For example:

He set up his stereo set-up.

Make-Up

Make up is composed of the verb make and the adverb up.  You might make up a story or create something else.

Make-up is a noun describing a structure or composition.

The room’s make-up required the designer to make up a new color scheme.

Tear-Down

Tear down is a verb phrase composed of the verb tear and the adverb down. It tells in what direction the thing was torn.

A new usage of tear-down has slipped into the language from the real estate business.  Brokers sometimes refer to a house as having great tear-down potential or referring to a house as a tear-down.  These terms describe a house that could or should be demolished to make room for the sleeker, roomier, altogether more wonderful new house that the buyer has in mind.

We use hyphens to describe a person's age:
A 40-year-old woman was once considered middle-aged.
Here the single adjective is 40-year-old.

Making New Meanings

Hyphens can also create new adjectives.  For example:

A no point home equity loan is a frivolous use of credit.  Why borrow money if you have no point?

A no-point home equity loan is a smart way to borrow money.

Man-made materials refers to substances that were not made from a natural source.

A good way to tell if a hyphen is necessary is to block out each word you might hyphenate and see if the phrase makes sense.  For example, if you write man materials, you have written nonsense. If you write made materials, you have created gibberish again.  What the words mean is one adjective: man-made materials.

In short, hyphens are handy little marks that enable you to customize your word combinations.  Identify the purpose of your noun, adjective or phrase and you will know whether or not to set up your document with a strong word set-up.

© Elizabeth Danziger 2009

About the Author

Elizabeth Danziger, author of business writing text "Get to the Point!", offers customized on-site writing training as well as a full range of copy-writing and editing services. She can be reached through www.worktalk.com or in Los Angeles at (310) 396-8303. Sign up for Writamins free monthly writing tips at www.worktalk.com.

Science Fair: Breaking a glue bond help!!?

I am doing a science fair and I am seeing how much weight it takes to break apart a glue bond (Elmer's glue). I am using 2 wooden blocks. I glued a 4 cm board to a bigger board (So the surface area of the glue is small). Then I put a hook in the smaller board and hung them upside down attaching a rope to the bigger board, so that way only the weight I put on will pull down on the small board. (If you don't understand that's ok, its just some detail).

I tried using a bucket and water as weight and I maxed out my 30 kg scale (50 pounds), so I went on with 3 buckets and I had all 3 buckets filled and I added 2 bricks and it STILL didn't break. That must have been almost 150 pounds. (By this time the ropes must have slipped and it all fell down.) I don't know what to do at this point. Any suggestion is appreciated.

I am supposed to test some other glues too, but if Elmer's glue won't break the other glues won't either.

Thank you!

Consider reducing the area of the glue to 1 cm square.... depending on what you mean by a 4 cm board, that will cut the glued area to 1/4 or 1/16 of the original, which should lower the amount of weight needed for breaking strength. Or go even smaller in glued area, if you have to. Do you perhaps know someone with a router or plane who could remove a few mm of wood from a board surface, leaving you with a 1 cm square to be glued up?

(It would probably also be a good idea to do the project entirely in metric units, rather than cm and pounds.)

Here's some more conditions you might consider testing:
holding strength in cold temperatures
holding strength in warm temperatures
holding strength if the boards are clamped together while the glue is drying, vs. unclamped
holding strength on a very slickly planed surface vs. one that's rough-sawn
holding strength of glue that's been watered down before application
holding strength of thick vs. thin films of glue

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