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My question was closed1 on Phys.SE. Can you recommend me another Internet site where my question might be on-topic?

Here we keep a list of other Internet sites that might help students2 of physics. One site per answer. To keep the list at a reasonable size, please only include sites which fulfill the following criteria:

  1. The site should be a physics site or have a physics section.

  2. The site's scope should be wider than Phys.SE's scope. In particular, it should welcome questions in all areas of physics and at any level.

  3. The site should be free of charge.

Please avoid blatant promotion. This meta post is meant as a service for students in need.

1 The question wasn't reopened after I edited the question. Also no one helped me (sufficiently) when I asked in the Phys.SE chat room. (The chat room requires 20 reputation points.)

2 The word student includes self-student.


Return to FAQ index

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks. Answers to your question have provided me with a useful list of sites to check for whether my examination paper questions appear. $\endgroup$
    – ProfRob
    Dec 7, 2021 at 8:44

15 Answers 15

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http://www.physicsforums.com

There are two main reasons people might go to physicsforums instead of physics stack exchange. First, they are a forum so if you want more of a back and forth discussion, that will be a better format than stack exchange. Second, homework questions are on topic and they are glad to help. Students must show their work.

Physics stack exchange is better at quickly getting a straight answer. So if you don’t need a discussion then you may be better served here.

Both communities have lots of experts on a wide variety of technical topics, and there is a lot of crossover. Both communities have rather little patience for personal theories.

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    $\begingroup$ this is terrible. For some odd reason, people there just babble on and don't get anything done $\endgroup$
    – user86425
    Apr 14, 2017 at 15:03
  • 12
    $\begingroup$ @rpfphysics Also many people on that side just give plain wrong answers / don't know their stuff. $\endgroup$ May 26, 2017 at 17:43
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    $\begingroup$ Can you provide some annotation? For example, scope, typical type of questions (conceptual, homework, off-topic), typical level of questions (beginner/professional amateur/expert), level of activity (hourly, monthly, stale), typical quality of posts (both questions and answers), FAQ maturity, and overall assessment. $\endgroup$ Sep 7, 2021 at 9:57
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    $\begingroup$ I like physics forums, they don't have strict homework policy. $\endgroup$
    – user279106
    Sep 23, 2021 at 12:59
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http://www.quora.com/Physics

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  • $\begingroup$ Can you provide some annotation? For example, scope, typical type of questions (conceptual, homework, off-topic), typical level of questions (beginner/professional amateur/expert), level of activity (hourly, monthly, stale), typical quality of posts (both questions and answers), FAQ maturity, and overall assessment. $\endgroup$ Sep 7, 2021 at 9:57
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http://www.reddit.com/r/Physics

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  • $\begingroup$ Can you provide some annotation? For example, scope, typical type of questions (conceptual, homework, off-topic), typical level of questions (beginner/professional amateur/expert), level of activity (hourly, monthly, stale), typical quality of posts (both questions and answers), FAQ maturity, and overall assessment. $\endgroup$ Sep 7, 2021 at 9:58
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Problem Solving Strategies chatroom

This requires a rep of at least 20 points.

Typical questions come from college/university exam preparation (mainly JEE) and undergraduate level physics courses, and cover mathematics and physical chemistry as well as physics.

Use of ChatJax is preferred.

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http://www.thephysicsforum.com/forum.php

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  • $\begingroup$ Can you provide some annotation? For example, scope, typical type of questions (conceptual, homework, off-topic), typical level of questions (beginner/professional amateur/expert), level of activity (hourly, monthly, stale), typical quality of posts (both questions and answers), FAQ maturity, and overall assessment. $\endgroup$ Sep 7, 2021 at 9:58
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https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience

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  • $\begingroup$ Can you provide some annotation? For example, scope, typical type of questions (conceptual, homework, off-topic), typical level of questions (beginner/professional amateur/expert), level of activity (hourly, monthly, stale), typical quality of posts (both questions and answers), FAQ maturity, and overall assessment. $\endgroup$ Sep 7, 2021 at 9:58
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https://www.wyzant.com/ is a tutoring site but where you can post your question (homework)

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https://www.slader.com/

Live Tutoring
Tutoring on Slader provides users a platform to chat and share concepts visually through images and a live shared drawing board. Slader users can request help from other students in the same subject, host a tutoring session with friends through a unique link, or choose a certified pro tutor (who charges gold). Two brains are always better than one.

Textbook Solutions
Slader features millions of solutions to the most popular textbooks in the United States. All of the homework solutions on Slader are written by the Slader community. Anyone can contribute solutions to textbook problems, which are viewed and rated by the Slader community. Solutions are always free to view and we encourage contribution to the site in all productive forms.

Question and Answer
Slader's Q&A platform is where non-textbook based questions in any subject can be asked and answered. Asking questions and providing answers benefit all users and makes the learning process easier and more enjoyable.

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http://physicshelpforum.com/physics-help-forum.php

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  • $\begingroup$ Can you provide some annotation? For example, scope, typical type of questions (conceptual, homework, off-topic), typical level of questions (beginner/professional amateur/expert), level of activity (hourly, monthly, stale), typical quality of posts (both questions and answers), FAQ maturity, and overall assessment. $\endgroup$ Sep 7, 2021 at 9:58
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http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=131

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  • $\begingroup$ Can you provide some annotation? For example, scope, typical type of questions (conceptual, homework, off-topic), typical level of questions (beginner/professional amateur/expert), level of activity (hourly, monthly, stale), typical quality of posts (both questions and answers), FAQ maturity, and overall assessment. $\endgroup$ Sep 7, 2021 at 10:02
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https://artofproblemsolving.com/community

A good number of questions closed as off-topic are often of grade 12 level or sometimes of Olympiad Physics level. When PSE veterans see such questions, they will sometimes respond harshly. Although AoPS webpage says that it's for Grade 2-12, many undergraduate discussions and Olympiad discussions take place there. This might be relevant for a lot of questions.

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    $\begingroup$ The front page of the link says it's for grades 5-12; I'm not sure how appropriate that would be for many users who would be in college-level courses. $\endgroup$
    – Kyle Kanos
    Dec 19, 2019 at 12:51
  • $\begingroup$ I see that a lot of questions (often the closed as off topics) are of grade 12 level. Also Aops also has Undergrad stuff. I can assure that althought not 100% alt. for asking in PSE, This will be relevent enough for a lot of questions. $\endgroup$ Dec 19, 2019 at 17:02
  • $\begingroup$ Please edit that clarifying comment into the text of the answer. In its current form (a bare link), the answer doesn't seem very helpful. Ideally the answer should stand on its own even if all the comments were to be deleted. $\endgroup$
    – rob Mod
    Dec 20, 2019 at 11:34
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https://physics.codidact.com/categories/59

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physics.qandaexchange.com

The site is for students of physics, physics enthusiasts, and all those who love explaining physics. The purpose of the site is to help answer questions users have about solving specific problems about physics.

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  • $\begingroup$ This site is currently down $\endgroup$ Jan 6 at 18:09
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Ask the Physicist!

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This is a cut-paste copy of a personal blog post I made that combines the resources in previous answers (and a few others) into a single post.

stackexchange.com is a great site to ask questions and receive professional answers, but it usually takes time to get an answer and questions are sometimes closed unnecessarily.

Here are some other options:

  • If your question is closed on physics.stackexchange.com (which is plagued by "overly aggressive moderators"), try posting on:

    • math.stackexchange.com if your question is mostly mathematical, or mathoverflow.net if your question is mathematical and fairly high-level.

    • astronomy.stackexchange.com if your question is about astronomy.

    • space.stackexchange.com if your question is about space exploration, rocket launches, or anything similar.

    • earthscience.stackexchange.com if your question relates to Earth science.

    • gis.stackexchange.com if your question is about GIS or geography.

    • mathematica.stackexchange.com if you are working physics problems with Mathematica(tm) software.

    • programmers.stackexchange.com if you are writing a computer program to do physics (also stackoverflow.com)

    • scifi.stackexchange.com if you're wondering how physics works in an existing science fiction world, or worldbuilding.stackexchange.com if you're trying to create a world and need help with your fictional physics.

    • The other answers to this question may also provide additional resources.

You can also try visiting the Physics Stack Exchange chat room: http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/71/the-h-bar where the atmosphere is generally friendlier. In many cases, they will help you with homework, even if your problem was closed on the main site.

  • If you need help more urgently, or your question was closed on a different Stack Exchange site, you might try:

    • openstudy.com: near-real-time help, somewhat difficult-to-naviate interface

    • wolframalpha.com: if you just need to check your answers, this can be helpful, but it's been having a few serious problems later, so proceed with caution.

    • quora.com: if your question is more philosophical or discussion-based (instead of looking for a specific answer), Quora might be the place to post.

If you would like any other sites listed here, please let me know. The listings below are from individual users, and I have not vetted them:

  • toughstem.com
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    $\begingroup$ The suggestions herein related to Software Engineering and Science Fiction & Fantasy show a lack of knowledge or respect for the policies of those sites and simply aren't going to help readers who take the advice seriously. You also somehow failed to miss the existence of Computational Science which is a much better place to take numerical questions than Programmers, though not as populous as Stack Overflow. $\endgroup$ Apr 14, 2017 at 15:02
  • $\begingroup$ Why so many downvotes on such a good answer? $\endgroup$
    – Bongo Man
    2 days ago

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