59
votes
Bite-sizing homework
Questions that can be summarized as "please solve this exercise" or "please plug these numbers into an equation for me" are OFF topic.
- 18k
56
votes
Bite-sizing homework
Questions that can be summarized as "Please explain what this aspect of a solution/derivation means or why it makes sense" are ON topic
- 23.9k
40
votes
Bite-sizing homework
Questions that can be summarized as "I was working on X and didn't understand why Y isn't the case" or similar are ON topic.
- 18k
31
votes
Bite-sizing homework
Questions that can be summarized as "I want to solve this problem but do not know how. What relevant physics do I need to research/learn to solve it?" are ON topic.
- 23.9k
31
votes
My question was closed on Phys.SE. Can you recommend me another Internet site where my question might be on-topic?
ToughSTEM. A question answer community on a mission to share solutions for all STEM major problems.
This is a site built specifically for answering STEM (science, technology, engineering, and ...
- 383
29
votes
Accepted
Generalizing the homework policy
Questions which ask us to perform calculations are off topic.
This is too broad. I recognize that it's intended to head off boring copied-from-homework questions like "what's the optimal angle ...
robMod
- 70.2k
25
votes
Should we rename the homework policy?
Yes, we should.
"Homework" isn't the issue
I think we all agree that whether or not a post comes from a homework assignment is irrelevant, as illustrated by this example question:
Consider a ...
- 22.9k
22
votes
Bite-sizing homework
The current policy is summarised as "we do accept homework questions, but only if X, Y, Z". It would be better to move to a policy that says "we do not accept homework questions. However, if you do X, ...
- 32k
21
votes
My question was closed on Phys.SE. Can you recommend me another Internet site where my question might be on-topic?
http://www.physicsforums.com
QmechanicMod
- 167k
20
votes
Replacing the homework policy 1: what existing questions should be on/off topic?
Sound pitch of glass with water
This is not a homework or homework-like question, it's not a calculation request, it's completely conceptual, but the question doesn't show any prior research, or any ...
- 73.7k
20
votes
Accepted
Users that post every question in their homework/exams
Recently I've noticed a few people posting questions in rapid succession, each with a screenshot of a problem. If you look at the questions as a whole, it's obvious they've split their entire problem ...
robMod
- 70.2k
19
votes
Users that post every question in their homework/exams
To discourage rapid postings of the type alluded to in the question, methinks screenshots of text should be outright banned. I can understand a screenshot of a figure, but if it can be easily done ...
- 38.2k
18
votes
Replacing the homework policy 1: what existing questions should be on/off topic?
Mutual $E$ force due to charged coaxial rings
I think this is probably homework because it's really just asking how to solve a problem. However you could argue it's conceptual in the sense that it's ...
- 330k
18
votes
Replacing the homework policy 1: what existing questions should be on/off topic?
Three dimensional isotropic harmonic oscilator Hamiltonian
This is an advanced question (on quantum mechanics) that shows detailed effort. It could be argued that it doesn't actually ask anything ...
- 73.7k
17
votes
How do I ask homework questions on Physics Stack Exchange?
Bad:
Your question looks like: "Here is my homework. Solve it instead of me, now".
You scanned/photographed your textbook.
You don't show effort or curiosity towards the solution.
You don't bother to ...
17
votes
Bounty on "entrance exam" question
[moderator hat off: personal opinion]
We don’t close homework-like questions based on where they are from. We close homework-like questions when they are about doing some single-purpose computation (...
robMod
- 70.2k
16
votes
Poll: do you ignore the homework tag?
No, I don't have the tag on ignore.
Upvote if this is the case. To keep the numbers clean, please don't downvote.
$\quad$
- 123k
16
votes
The $F=ma$ competition was February 18th, 2021
The exam is over now! Thankfully, nothing went awry on this particular site.
- 94.9k
15
votes
Bite-sizing homework
Questions which can be summarized as "This is the statement of an example problem. (Perhaps the "simplest" and/or the "most interesting" case I have been able to think of at the moment.) Rather than ...
- 4,058
14
votes
Accepted
Should we rename the homework tag as "problem-solving", or such?
How about homework-and-exercises? It is self-explanatory, and that way we still call a spade a spade while simultaneously leave open the possibility that it might not be actual homework.
QmechanicMod
- 167k
14
votes
Proposal: putting homework questions on hold - but only for a week
From what I gather, whether students use Physics.SE to cheat or not has never been our primary concern when considering the homework policy.
The main reason behind the "harsh" homework policy is that ...
ACuriousMindMod
- 106k
14
votes
Accepted
What does this community mean by students?
Introductory remarks
First some remarks to address specific points or misconceptions in your post, then I'll try to pick apart this case.
I don't think there is an agreed definition of "student". I ...
14
votes
Generalizing the homework policy
In my opinion, in this discussion there is too much focus on the "question" and not enough on the "value of the question plus the answer".
If the goal of the site is to be a "resource" to all serious ...
- 116k
14
votes
Why was my question about the Devil's problem deemed a homework question?
Your question does not ask a conceptual question about physics, it simply asks users to solve the exercise you call "the Devil's problem".
That you ask us to solve the exercise not by saying ...
ACuriousMindMod
- 106k
14
votes
Accepted
Should Physics enable a "triage" review queue for homework-like questions?
I went into Stack Overflow and handled a few questions from the Triage queue there to remind myself a bit how this works. I've done over 1,100 triages on SO, but it had been a while so I had forgotten ...
- 4,751
13
votes
Bite-sizing homework
Questions that can be summarized as "Please explicitly derive this equation/law for me" are OFF topic.
- 23.9k
13
votes
How do I ask homework questions on Physics Stack Exchange?
The aim of our site is to be an authoritative source of information for active researchers, academics and students of physics and astronomy, and we want the posts here to be interesting, informative ...
13
votes
My question was closed on Phys.SE. Can you recommend me another Internet site where my question might be on-topic?
http://www.quora.com/Physics
QmechanicMod
- 167k
13
votes
Homework questions, on hold
In general, homework help is the gold mine of such sites,
There is a pretty good argument that homework help drives out the real experts and prevents the site from hosting large numbers of really ...
13
votes
Why are homework related questions accepted on maths SE more than here?
Because this is a different community centered around a different topic, responding to different pressures, in a very different internet environment, and which has made different choices over a very ...
- 123k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible