I asked a question: Formula to calculate round-trip travel time based on current distance to far-away galaxy.
In my opinion, it was very well and clearly defined and answerable. In fact, it received an upvote before being closed.
It was closed for being a homework-like question.
What really got to me was that it was closed with no comments and no answers.
I understand that it would be a waste of time for there to be answers to infinite variations of the same question.
E.g., a mass of _ and an acceleration of _. What is the force?
Often, my pattern will be that someone will give me an answer/comment that will lead to me to find the right answer and then I can post it as answer and accept it.
Closing questions for being homework-like leaves no room for someone to answer their own question if they find the answer based on a comment.
This part of the homework-like policy stuck out to me though:
Homework questions can be on-topic when they are useful to a broader audience.
To me, my question seemed like it was relevant to broader audience. I did some searching and was unable to find something similar that had been answered.
For example, I searched this and there was not anything remotely accessible to me on the first page of results.
For someone who is it at a lower level of physics such as myself, such a question being answered would (in my opinion) be a blessing.
Do we too easily close homework-like questions? Could we more welcoming to new users and those with lower physics levels?