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This question:Why does a bicycle come to rest after travelling a distance? has been downvoted too much. Why is it so.

IMO OP seems to know that there should be some force which brings the bicycle to rest and is just asking for if this is true or there is some other concept involved. Since the OP does not make it clear my speculation might be wrong.

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  • $\begingroup$ I'm one of the downvoters. I downvoted because friction is one of the first concepts one should study along with Newton's laws. $\endgroup$
    – jinawee
    Commented Apr 19, 2014 at 16:36
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    $\begingroup$ @jinawee While I was in school I read the chapter of Friction after the chapter of Newton's Laws. It might be that OP had not read about friction. $\endgroup$
    – user31782
    Commented Apr 19, 2014 at 17:46
  • $\begingroup$ It is worth noting that the poster already had a history by the time (s)he posted that question. This was not his/her first or even tenth question, and others had covered topic nominally more advanced than the basics of friction. $\endgroup$
    – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Mod
    Commented Apr 19, 2014 at 22:30
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    $\begingroup$ That said, "too much" is an expression of your opinion, and those votes are expressions of other people's opinions. $\endgroup$
    – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Mod
    Commented Apr 19, 2014 at 22:31
  • $\begingroup$ Note that the policy is that you are free to use downvotes. But you shouldn't use them with bad intentions. Even execellent questions have some downvotes (the converse is also true). $\endgroup$
    – jinawee
    Commented Apr 20, 2014 at 9:51
  • $\begingroup$ Let me make one thing clear I am not paranoid about downvotes. Some of my questions were deleted by community mod because they were downvoted below 5. To have known the reasons for downvotes I could make my question on-topic. Deleted(or removed) questions are automatically off-topic. $\endgroup$
    – user31782
    Commented Apr 21, 2014 at 12:36

2 Answers 2

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In seeing the way the question was first posted, one can't expect anything better than @ja72's comment.

We usually downvote because upvotes/downvotes are basically meant for whether a post is showing some research effort or not.

In the question, (it appears, from its looks that) the OP didn't bother to do some research on his question. I might guess that that's probably the reason behind the other downvotes.

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Here's my take: the questioner effectively says, right in the question, that they know that an object's velocity won't change without a force acting on it. Then they ask whether the fact that an object (the bicycle) is changing its velocity implies that a force is acting on it. This reflects a failure to apply basic logic. And the entire core of the question is based on that logical failure. So it's not a good question for us; there's no interesting physics in it.

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    $\begingroup$ Everyone is not intelligent. It might be the policy of Phys.SE to downvote such questions. How far a good policy is this which discriminate the unintelligent? The OP clearly knows the basic logic but he wants to know if their is some other physical phenomena or theory involved or his idea that there must be a force is correct. $\endgroup$
    – user31782
    Commented Apr 20, 2014 at 3:30
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    $\begingroup$ Reasons for downvoting aren't exactly a matter of policy, but I would argue that's exactly the kind of justification for downvoting we want. This is a site for expert-level questions, not basic logical failures. If the OP clearly knew the basic logic and wanted to know something more interesting, he or she should have clearly said so. $\endgroup$
    – David Z Mod
    Commented Apr 20, 2014 at 3:44
  • $\begingroup$ "This is a site for expert-level questions." Would you give me the link for further details about this policy. $\endgroup$
    – user31782
    Commented Apr 20, 2014 at 3:46
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    $\begingroup$ Why, what sort of further details are you looking for? Most of it is in the help center. $\endgroup$
    – David Z Mod
    Commented Apr 20, 2014 at 3:51
  • $\begingroup$ I could not find this info in help page. Is there some kind of discussion available on meta? $\endgroup$
    – user31782
    Commented Apr 20, 2014 at 3:56
  • $\begingroup$ What exactly are you looking for a discussion of? I'm not clear on that. $\endgroup$
    – David Z Mod
    Commented Apr 20, 2014 at 4:44
  • $\begingroup$ You say:""This is a site for expert-level questions." Who has decided this? Where it is written? $\endgroup$
    – user31782
    Commented Apr 20, 2014 at 4:48
  • $\begingroup$ Oh, that. Well for one thing, it's in giant text on the home page of the Stack Exchange network. I'm sure you can also find many answers saying this on Meta Stack Exchange. $\endgroup$
    – David Z Mod
    Commented Apr 20, 2014 at 5:39
  • $\begingroup$ It says:"expert answers to your questions". If I am reading it correct then it means that ask a question and get an answer from the experts. It does not mean that the questions are ought to be of expert level. $\endgroup$
    – user31782
    Commented Apr 20, 2014 at 5:43
  • $\begingroup$ I have looked on Meta.SE everyone says that the questions should show some research effort, be it expert level or beginner level.e.g. here. I have seen that diff sites have diff policies e.g. Math.SE allows homework and beginner question. What is the policy for Phys.SE? Is it same as of Stackoverflow? I do not find the text "This is a site for expert-level questions." anywhere. $\endgroup$
    – user31782
    Commented Apr 20, 2014 at 6:03
  • $\begingroup$ let us continue this discussion in chat $\endgroup$
    – David Z Mod
    Commented Apr 20, 2014 at 6:15
  • $\begingroup$ David, this comment of mine is my personal opinion. Rest of my comments were about your expert-level statement. $\endgroup$
    – user31782
    Commented Apr 21, 2014 at 14:12

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