Questions tagged [scope]
For discussions about the site's scope - what questions and topics should and should not be on-topic on the site.
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Should any check-my-work questions be made on topic?
It's long overdue that I make this post revisiting our policy on "check-my-work" questions. These are questions, often (but not necessarily) homework-like, that present a complete mathematical or ...
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Are engineering questions appropriate for this site?
Often we get questions of the form
"How do I build this particular device?" or
"Why was this design implemented in such-and-such product?"
Are these questions appropriate for the Physics Stack ...
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Good list, bad list
The Stack Exchange model does not work well for "big list" questions, and these are banned network-wide for good reason. However, many of the other Stack Exchange sites allow or even ...
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Should pure math questions be on topic?
We've previously had some discussion about the suitability of pure math questions for this site. Currently, pure math questions - by which I mean those that have no physics content, even if they arise ...
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If it's possible, do we want to expand the scope of this site to include astronomy?
It was recently announced that several SE sites are closing, including Theoretical Physics and Astronomy. Given that our scope here is basically a superset of the scope of Theoretical Physics and that ...
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Experimental Physics & Engineering
I know that most of us are "paper theorists," but I think we need to remember that experimental physics is physics too! We have several tags for experimental physics (with tag excerpts):
...
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Is Physics SE an appropriate location for peer review?
What peer review style questions are acceptable to ask on Physics SE and what actions, if any, should be taken against unacceptable questions?
When I originally encountered this question and its ...
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Are questions about mathematics used in physics always off topic?
This question looks in imminent danger of being closed on the grounds that it's a pure mathematics question. This is something that happened a lot when I was more active on the site, and is one of the ...
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Should history of physics questions be on topic?
When we last visited the issue of history questions, the dedicated History of Science and Mathematics Stack Exchange was in its early stages. At that time, we decided against closing questions for ...
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Ultimately, what will the Physics Stack Exchange Become? Are there long term goals?
It was sometime back that I realized what we are synthesizing here (possibly) is an archive for an expert system. Put the Physics Stack Exchange together with an AI machine and you have a super-...
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Generalizing the homework policy
In our last chat session two weeks ago (sorry for the delay), we had a discussion about updating the homework policy and homework close reason. I'm making this post to summarize that discussion and ...
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Asking math questions
I understand that asking pure math questions on the physics site is discouraged and I've seen many questions moved over to math. However, often times such questions are more suited for physicists to ...
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Replacing the homework policy 1: what existing questions should be on/off topic?
TL;DR: post examples of current questions which are edge cases for the new policy, look through the list, and
vote answers UP if you think they should be ON TOPIC
vote answers DOWN if you think they ...
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What can be done about the (current) ongoing flood of homework and very basic questions overwhelming our site?
Since quite some time, the amount of new incoming higher level questions is decaying and the number of very basic ones is increasing, but the current inflood of bad homeworks (the good ones I ...
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What is the line between fiction and physics with respect to off-topic?
There is a question I believe to be well on topic, relevant, and interesting. It is asking to consider a fictional scenario and evaluate, as given in the fictional scenario, whether it is possible to ...
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Graduate and above level questions aren't homework
I know, I know, it's yet another Meta post about our homework policy. Feel free to downvote and write abusive comments if you're heartily sick of posts about the homework policy.
If you're still with ...
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Should "How do I solve this experimental problem?" questions be on-topic
Brought up by the flag and comments on How to determine whether a large container is air-tight?".
I want to address question in which the OP has run into a roadbump in build/calibrating/operating a ...
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Does the Area 51 proposal "Experimental or Applied Physics" duplicate this site?
A new Area 51 proposal "Experimental or Applied Physics" was recently created.
While I've looked at your FAQ, I don't know the field well enough to be comfortable making the call on my own—which ...
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What does everyone mean by "insufficient research effort"?
Lately I've noticed a lot of close votes, down votes, and comments to the effect of "this question is too low level" or "the answer is on the internet if you search for it" or "you should already know ...
user10851
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Level of questions: what do we do now ?
There has been a lot of discussions about the level of the questions and the quality of the questions.
It seems to me that we have a core group of users, that are following Physics SE from a long ...
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Replacing the homework policy 1b: what is our scope anyway?
Abstract: Analyzing the data from the last replace-the-homework-policy question was inconclusive. So back to the drawing board, or really back to our starting point: what kinds of questions do we ...
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What is our stance on questions about legally or ethically questionable activities?
This question about exercises relating to nuclear bomb design prompted a couple of complaints about the kind of attention it might bring to the site. I wanted to open a question for community input on ...
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Can I ask several related questions in a single thread?
I have several physics questions, all of which are about the sloshing mode of water. Should I ask all the questions in a single thread, or create separate threads?
Return to FAQ index
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Can we please stop applying the homework tag (and policy) to very advanced questions?
This question is inspired by Colin McFauls very reasonable classification of questions tagged as homework due to the very broad notion of the term "homework-like" currently applied at Physics SE, ...
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Should we allow software questions? (take 3)
So it was alluded to in Should we allow software questions? (take 2) that software recommendation questions are generally off-topic but as pointed out by @dmckee on neutron transport approximations ...
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Is asking for references OK?
Or should only substantive questions be allowed?
If not, is there another place to ask reference questions?
Actually, I would like to ask reference questions, so I will make this a feature-request,
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Users that post every question in their homework/exams
Everybody who's been here for a while knows that the homework policy is not as advertised.
If the exercise is sufficiently interesting, and the OP is sufficiently polite, the question often stays ...
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What can be done to improve Physics.SE as an active forum for physics researchers and student's?
As noted elsewhere, I have personally discontinued use of Physics.SE, since it seems to me that it no longer acts as a forum for research based physics Q&A. Over the past 12 months there has in my ...
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Should we allow software questions? (take 2)
I recently noticed this question:
What is the format for "local catalog" files used by JSkyCat?
Apparently it was migrated from Astronomy SE, and was on topic there according to the ...
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Experimental technology questions: on topic?
So far the scope of Physics Stack Exchange has been defined to exclude experimental technology questions, which are those questions about the devices that one uses to do physics, rather than about the ...
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Should I post a question if I know the answer? Should I answer my own questions?
Recently I had some questions and was going to post them here. While trying to find the best formulation for them I've found the answers.
Posting questions with immediate answers is welcome e.g. on ...
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What are the goals of this site?
This discussion question is inspired by this post on the current homework policy question. The main question is
What are the goals of this site?
Some things to think about when answering:
What is ...
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Are history of physics questions allowed?
I've been meaning to ask about the timeline of discovery of a certain physical phenomenon on the main site, but I thought I should probably ask a more general question here on meta to clear the air:
...
user172
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How should we handle how-to-find-a-specific-reference requests?
We occasionally get "find me a PDF" requests, where a user knows exactly the paper she needs and (presumably because of a paywall) asks how to obtain an electronic copy of it. This has typically been ...
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Are physics-related notation and terminology questions on-topic?
This is prompted by
What is the origin of the naming convention for position functions?
which asks why s is used as the letter for position. Here are some more examples.
which letter to use for a ...
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Adding computational science to the list of on-topic items in the Help Center
Recently we've been discussing here whether questions on numerical algorithms should be allowed when the context is a physics problem. The last time this was discussed on Meta seems to be here (a ...
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What should be sent to astronomy.stackexchange?
Obviously, there's a lot of overlap between physics and astronomy. It would be good to have some guidelines for what goes where now that the astronomy beta is live.
Example questions for discussion:
...
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Questions about (barely) hypothetical scenarios: on topic or not?
The question Would Portal-style portals transmit gravity? was recently migrated from scifi.SE. Some people think it's off topic, some people don't, and I can kind of see both sides so I'm not quite ...
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Do we allow paper/reference requests?
I've seen this meta question already, but that deals with a slightly different case I think.
I'm wondering if questions like this should be allowed. Specifically, I'm wondering if requests for papers ...
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Physics SE should emphasis on problem solving
I observed math SE is more active than physics SE. They don't close problems. I think Physics SE should encourage problem solving. Moderator should not close homework problem. This will help community ...
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Folks, we need to talk about the surface-area-of-a-chicken question
This question
How do I find the approximate surface area of a chicken?
underwent a severe close/reopen yo-yo cycle. It was closed once by a moderator, then reopened by community members, then re-...
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Are questions about the identification of physical phenomena on-topic?
This question was just closed as off-topic. It is a well presented question, which was well-received, and it got a good, canonical answer. The stated reason for closing was that "it doesn't ...
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Where should research-level questions go? Theoretical Physics SE or Physics Research SE?
Among users of Physics SE there is a group of people who wants to have their 'Physicsoverflow', that is, a group oriented for research-level questions.
It is almost impossible to turn this SE into ...
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How to deal with questions based on videos?
Here are two recent questions that I would consider low in quality:
Is coherent light required for interference in the Young double slit experiment?
What theories explain the wave-particle duality as ...
user4552
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Do we need/want an overarching books question?
The current tag wiki for the books - now resource-recommendation - tag includes, in its final paragraph, the request that
If you question is about resource-recommendations, please add your question ...
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Has our policy on astronomy questions changed now that Astronomy beta is open?
I noticed that this question was migrated to the new Astronomy beta site:
https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/1845/
My understanding was that since the merger with the old astronomy site, all ...
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What kind of `[education]` questions should we allow?
I've seen questions about how to study physics or how physics should be taught being dealt with in a variety of ways. Some get downvoted, some get closed by moderators while others are even answered ...
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What questions should be considered to close by 3000+ users? [closed]
As long as we don't have many hi-rep users, it is useful to have a place with list of candidates to close; at least it worked well on other betas.
Rules:
Add a link to the candidate for closure ...
user68
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Mathematical Physics: Does it Belong here?
Does mathematical physics questions belong here, or on math?
Say, for example, I wish to ask about Penrose–Hawking singularity theorems-- basically they are just the theorems and the solutions of ...
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How about a "physics problems" stack exchange?
Many of you should be familiar with the theoretical physics stack exchange (and current beta), and are probably familiar with the arguments against that proposal.
As someone who's focused basically ...
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