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I recently posted the following question about a mechanical system described in an exercise:

Acceleration of masses connected by a leaning pole

I am emphatically not looking for someone to check my work, and I am emphatically not trying to get help on a homework problem (I'm self-studying and already solved the original problem anyway). I just think this is an interesting physical system and I'm curious about how to model its motion.

I acknowledge that the question I've asked is extremely specific and maybe not interesting to a general audience, but it concerns a force acting on a mass in a nontrivial and nonuniform way, so I thought it might clear the bar. But even after editing, and explaining that it's not a homework problem and it's not work-verification, it's still closed.

I'm new to studying physics and I'm new to the Physics Stack Exchange community. Is there another reason this question is off-topic? Is there a way I can better write questions about physical systems that I find interesting, but difficult to study?

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    $\begingroup$ The close message says “homework-like”, not “homework”. We do not distinguish self-study from schooling. $\endgroup$
    – Ghoster
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 16:54
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    $\begingroup$ The judgement of whether a question is homework-like is made by members or moderators, hopefully according to the guidelines on the linked page. No declaration of “this isn’t homework” by the OP has any influence; if it did, everyone with homework would say “this isn’t homework”. $\endgroup$
    – Ghoster
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 17:06
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    $\begingroup$ The question is not without interest but difficult to transform into a conceptual question. The community would rather not this site become a homework site, and has a fully justifiable fear that answering questions phrased as you did will just open the floodgates to homework-type questions. (Indicating the question is a variation on a textbook question was not helpful either.) $\endgroup$
    – ZeroTheHero
    Commented Mar 15, 2023 at 3:18
  • $\begingroup$ This is fair. Thanks for your feedback, all. I’m new to this particular community; I spend a lot more time on math.stackexchange instead, and questions based on specific problems are much more common there. In the future I’ll try to make it more about the physics and less about specific problems $\endgroup$
    – D Ford
    Commented Mar 15, 2023 at 10:17
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    $\begingroup$ This question is representative of the kind of debate the community has had in this issue. If you check some of the related posts from the right panel you will find other examples. Unfortunately for you, even if your question is interesting, it was considered too close to the line. Maybe there’s a way to rescue your question by looking at some constraint (as you started to do), or conservation of energy, although this will require additional work. $\endgroup$
    – ZeroTheHero
    Commented Mar 15, 2023 at 11:51

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I am emphatically not looking for someone to check my work, and I am emphatically not trying to get help on a homework problem (I'm self-studying and already solved the original problem anyway).

We don't define homework as "an assignment you submit for a grade." It's loosely defined as a question in which the solution to the posted problem is the key point of the post, rather than the underlying physics concepts. Your post is asking us on the method by which you could solve the problem, ergo it is a homework like question.

While you don't explicitly ask for it, posting your method of obtaining the ODE is probably rightfully considered "check my work" as well, as you’re almost surely expecting others to check the derivation.

Is there another reason this question is off-topic?

No, it's posted pretty clearly at the top of your post what the problem is with your post:

Homework-like questions and check-my-work questions are considered off-topic here, particularly when asking about specific computations instead of underlying physics concepts. Homework questions can be on-topic when they are useful to a broader audience. Note that answers to homework questions with complete solutions may be deleted!

Be sure to check out those links.

Is there a way I can better write questions about physical systems that I find interesting, but difficult to study?

Yes, but it's somewhat vague and possibly difficult: you have to take a step back from attempting to solve the problem, look at the physics concepts you're applying (e.g., Newtonian mechanics, balancing forces) and ask about whatever it is of those concepts that's preventing you from solving the problem.

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