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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Are questions regarding gravitational waves allowed? [closed]

A question I have is "We know gravitational waves exist, but how do we detect them?" "I have heard astronomers talk about gravitational waves being created when two black holes collide or when two ...
Little Bowsette's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
164 views

Physics question wrongly put on hold as "engineering"

Can somebody please explain what this physics question (Is the strenght of the magnetic field the same across the surface of the magnet's pole?) has to do with engineering? Is physics not about ...
Alex Doe's user avatar
  • 1,025
1 vote
1 answer
56 views

Where to ask for a software recommendation about light refraction in a 3D media?

I'm want to simulate and visualize (render) how would light refract inside a glass mug with complex geometry. Since I'm quite sure I cannot code myself something like that, I would ask for a software ...
corcholatacolormarengo's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
341 views

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 ...
Kurt Fitzner's user avatar
-9 votes
2 answers
153 views

Should this really be put on hold?

Why are questions concerning the consistency of different parts of mainstream physics with one another considered as questions about non-mainstream physics and put on hold? I asked a question about ...
Alpha_Pi's user avatar
  • 241
24 votes
6 answers
1k views

Is the demise of Stack Exchange (as we know it) ineluctable?

I feel concerned about a thought that I had recently. I am wondering if the current policy about duplicate questions may become problematic in the (very) long term for the health of Stack Exchange. ...
Gonstasp's user avatar
  • 1,277
-3 votes
1 answer
179 views

What does conceptual mean?

I've told to come here by another user after my question was put on hold a few days ago for being "off-topic". What does "conceptual" mean? It's a word I see floating around a lot on this site and it'...
AustereTiger's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
74 views

I need more light on the homework policy

Please, I need to know what is wrong if one posts their homework here and it is well formatted? The actual thing is they might have tried solving before coming here in the case where they didn't ...
ThunderBird's user avatar
13 votes
2 answers
319 views

Where to ask questions about teaching physics?

There is https://matheducators.stackexchange.com/, https://cseducators.stackexchange.com, and https://chemistry.stackexchange.com which is geared towards teachers. Physics teachers seem to lack such ...
Jasper's user avatar
  • 1,768
-1 votes
1 answer
92 views

Are questions about the character or personality of famous Physicists on-topic?

I know from this question: Should history of physics questions be on topic? that questions about the history of Physics are considered on-topic, but what about questions about the character or ...
Time4Tea's user avatar
  • 4,042
2 votes
1 answer
77 views

Is a question about calculators in SI format according to "what topics can I ask about here"?

I put the following question (10k-only link) and immediately received down-vote, thus, deleted it. Could be question is off-topic, could be someone is happy trigger of down-votes. Yes, I known is a ...
pasaba por aqui's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
80 views

Is my question off topic? If not, how to get more attention?

I recently asked this question regarding simulation of Diffuse Interstellar Bands for molecules. So far it had only 12 views and any interaction, is it off topic? If not, How do I get more attention?
RSFalcon7's user avatar
  • 131
1 vote
2 answers
129 views

Notify users when homework-and-exercises posts are found acceptable for answering

Could this site somehow let contributors know if a homework and exercise question has been reviewed and found acceptable for answering? Right now we only know when a question is found to be ...
Bob D's user avatar
  • 68.9k
0 votes
1 answer
108 views

Which physics SE questions should be redirected to Worldbuilding SE?

Worldbuilding SE looks like a pretty active place. They have a 'physics' tag, a 'science-based' tag, and a hard-science tag, and many of the people who frequent the site also have reasonably active ...
user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
43 views

Is my question in the wrong place?

How much degenerate matter is there, compared to other states of matter? hasn't had any replies. I'm thinking about starting a bounty on it, but maybe it would be more appropriate in Chemistry or ...
Foo Bar's user avatar
  • 988
5 votes
1 answer
262 views

Engineering, what does Phys.SE deem as not Physics?

Right so I posted a question about something (not really important because the response is the important part). One of my responses (who I believe flagged the article) complained that it was not ...
P.Lord's user avatar
  • 111
6 votes
1 answer
286 views

On-topic answers for seemingly off-topic questions

I was thinking about the recent question "Why is making a white laser so difficult?" A couple of days back (when I first saw it) if I recall correctly, I left my usual off-topic-because-it's-...
user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
250 views

Pedagogical questions about physics

Sparked by the discussion in the comments in the question How to teach modeling physical systems, especially if it is off-topic, I started looking for pedagogical questions about physics. I didn't ...
Petroglyph's user avatar
25 votes
3 answers
810 views

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 ...
knzhou's user avatar
  • 101k
-5 votes
1 answer
72 views

Is it possible to add a discussion tag?

I have some pretty good thought experiments that I would like to share with the physics community here (I'm sure others have them too), but I can't find a way to phrase them as questions. I've read ...
Shreyas Shridharan's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
282 views

Answering own question: "work" of the question in own answer

After reading the links provided by the mods in a question I recently posted with an answer, I believe that my question conforms in spirit the criteria that the moderators have tried to infuse in our ...
Enredanrestos's user avatar
-14 votes
1 answer
155 views

Can we reduce the scientific terms?

Well I think Its my personal problem .When ask a question its answers are in scientific terms and I was unable to understand it . Can you reduce the scientific terms,? and I know it is little bit ...
user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
79 views

Why was this question migrated

Why was this question migrated back to the EE forum. Granted it is about an electronics device, but the atomic level behaviour of the seimiconductor junction is definitely a physics question. I ...
Trevor_G's user avatar
  • 179
13 votes
4 answers
347 views

Rethinking the "too broad" criterion

I was sad this morning to see Gil Kalai's great question about the role of rigor closed for being too broad. I was even sadder this afternoon when Prof. Kalai's narrower follow-up question, was also ...
knzhou's user avatar
  • 101k
4 votes
2 answers
197 views

Is PSE the place to ask for clarification on scientific talks?

I've been watching a talk about physics by mathematician Marcus du Sautoy and I was left with some questions that were not addressed in the talk's Q&A session. Is it appropriate to ask those ...
Carvo Loco's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
116 views

Are questions about derivations in papers published in scientific journals, on-topic?

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this question but If I have a specific question about a derivation step in a paper published in Physical Review A, for example. Can I ask it here?
Q8i's user avatar
  • 11
2 votes
1 answer
97 views

Is there a StackExchange place where I can ask questions about non-mainstream physics?

I have some ideas about sub-quarks and sub-leptons and the structure of them. I can't ask this question on the PhysicsStackExchange place because the only questions you can ask there are about ...
Deschele Schilder's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
45 views

Having trouble understanding how to stay on topic

I have a question about my Physics Stack Exchange post: What governs the temperature rise inside an oven? I find myself frustrated with how questions need to be asked... and the pit of 'On Hold / ...
user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
80 views

Is new physics a bad fit for Stack Exchange?

My interest is in new physics, from the point of view of propulsion, and experiments that can confirm or disprove related new hypotheses. New physics attracts people who want to casually speculate and ...
DMac's user avatar
  • 86
2 votes
2 answers
106 views

Where exactly lies the line between physics and philosophy/meta physics?

I understand that the physics stack exchange community wants to see physics questions, not philosophical questions about things that are certainly unattainable. My question here is where you exactly ...
Dirkboss's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
296 views

Does the community welcome engineering physics questions?

Does the community welcome engineering physics question? e.g. How to build an AOM driver with a DDS board? What is an Evaluation Board? How to using AD9915 chips to build a ~400 MHz AOM driver?
Michael's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
79 views

Does this question belong in stack exchange physics or philosophy?

I recently had a question which I wasn't sure if this would be the correct site for as it seemed too speculative. But by the time I completed it, it seemed, more concrete than I'd imagined. I would ...
drewdles's user avatar
  • 1,157
3 votes
4 answers
195 views

Did my question deserve a hold?

Background: I've been using several SE sites for several years now. I am used to their systems and strict rules, respect them, and try to obey as much as possible. However I do not understand this on-...
Gaurang Tandon's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
153 views

Overly abstract?

This question and prose contained in Experiments are monads (I think), but are they comonads too? admittedly sounds like word salad to me, but unlike other theory questions over my head this doesn't ...
PPenguin's user avatar
  • 1,279
6 votes
2 answers
186 views

Should questions about the first use of a notation be on topic?

There's been some disagreement on the topicality of "Where do Feynman Diagrams Appear for the first time?", so I wanted to bring the issue to meta to get input from the community. It could be ...
David Z's user avatar
  • 75.8k
2 votes
2 answers
124 views

Is this legal to post my physics question here for verification only but not for answer?

Is this legal to post my physics question here for verification only but not for answer? I just want to make sure that my question is on-topic, not off-topic, and fits the rules, like it's not too ...
Farewell Stack Exchange's user avatar
-6 votes
2 answers
153 views

Physics Stackexchange rules?

From help pages: "If your motivation for asking the question is “I would like to participate in a discussion about ______”, then you should not be asking here. However, if your motivation is “I ...
Georgi Pavlov's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
73 views

Lab journal best practices - on topic?

I had a question about best practices for keeping a lab journal (specifically, should one only record experiments, or should one also include research for experiments, or time spent looking around on ...
auden's user avatar
  • 7,029
2 votes
1 answer
80 views

Remind users to do basic research before asking questions

While any of us can need an explanation of some concept we need to get clear in our minds and can't quite grasp, it does seem sometimes that even the most basic step is sometimes lacking. Could/...
StephenG - Help Ukraine's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
108 views

Any checks for possible nefarious use? [duplicate]

Not that I'm suggesting censorship, but are there any checks in the Physics Stack Exchange system that exclude questions seeking answers that might be used for evil or destructive purposes? I suppose ...
docscience's user avatar
  • 11.6k
4 votes
3 answers
569 views

May I ask a question about philosophy of physics?

Is it permitted or not or frowned upon? I couldn't find a tag for it. But I hope you'd rather see discussions about "what is physics?" and "falsifiability" (and some of the stuff that Smolin ...
robert bristow-johnson's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
312 views

Are the implications of magic on-topic?

I was about to post a question here, but felt unsure if it was topical here, or if I should post on World-Building instead. In a nutshell, my question has a premise that something magical (and ...
billpg's user avatar
  • 830
1 vote
0 answers
121 views

Leeway in deviating from goals of this site

This post is the second post of a series; the first can be found here and the post that inspired this series of questions can be found here. How much freedom are we willing to grant users in ...
auden's user avatar
  • 7,029
0 votes
1 answer
139 views

Could StackExchange serve as a resource for the physics subject GRE?

I recently went trough the marginally pleasant experience of having to take both the general and the physics subject GRE tests in order to apply to graduate programs in the US. I prepared exclusively ...
Janosh's user avatar
  • 1,234
-5 votes
1 answer
217 views

Homework policy

My main issue with how the site deals with 'homework questions' is about assumptions. I am an A level physics student and I never ask homework questions on this site. However I will ask questions ...
JudgeArmada's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
155 views

Math and engineering questions: where do we draw the line?

I was reading through some old meta discussions recently, and I was interested in some of the points made, but they never quite seemed to be implemented or discussed further. They also seemed to be ...
auden's user avatar
  • 7,029
2 votes
3 answers
108 views

Is Minecraft On-Topic?

Long question short: Changing Minecraft's Gravity via Code: StackOverflow, Math, Physics, or SciFi&Fantasy? Actual Question: Premise: So, some quick background on the question I want to answer. ...
Socratic Phoenix's user avatar
9 votes
7 answers
230 views

Why are these off-topic questions off topic?

Today I've seen a bunch of examples on the site of a certain type of question. In order to avoid priming responses, I'm not going to give this type of question a name. Instead, let me show by example ...
David Z's user avatar
  • 75.8k
-6 votes
2 answers
312 views

Can moderator or user with high reputation be held to the rules?

I keep getting down voted instantly and as a quick as I flagged my last question it got denied without reason. Can moderator or a user with privileges be kicked for down voting to much? Is there a way ...
Muze's user avatar
  • 1
23 votes
6 answers
1k views

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 ...
auden's user avatar
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