38
votes
Accepted
Should history of physics questions be on topic?
Summary
History questions are welcome on this site whenever they have any bearing on our modern understanding of physics. However, if a question has only minimal or null bearing on our current ...
- 131k
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
- 86.3k
26
votes
Accepted
Should questions with obvious answers on the web be closed?
Should questions with obvious answers on the web be closed ?
No, not unless they are duplicates. We do not need yet another highly subjective reason to close questions. If you think the question has ...
- 47.5k
24
votes
Allowing mathematical and homework questions on this site
I'm sorry, but the idea that our site policies are "controlling the learning of other less knowledgeable students of the universe" is just plainly ridiculous. That people on the internet won'...
ACuriousMindMod
- 122k
22
votes
What does everyone mean by "insufficient research effort"?
Given that I'm probably the leading exponent of closing questions on the basis of insufficient prior research I'm relieved to see I'm not implicated in the examples Chris cites (I did VTC one of them, ...
- 351k
22
votes
Accepted
What are the goals of this site?
The conception of the founding members is expressed in the tour:
Physics Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for active researchers, academics and students of physics and astronomy.
Now, ...
22
votes
Folks, we need to talk about the surface-area-of-a-chicken question
My take on it: No, this question is nowhere near on-topic. It is simply not about physics.
I agree it's a fun question, and that this can make it attractive to some people. But we don't set the site ...
- 131k
21
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
- 86.3k
20
votes
Accepted
Is Physics SE an appropriate location for peer review?
Generally speaking: no.
This site is very definitely not a replacement of traditional peer review. We simply do not have a community that is broad and varied enough to connect a given paper with an ...
- 131k
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 ...
- 75.8k
20
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 ...
- 45k
20
votes
Folks, we need to talk about the surface-area-of-a-chicken question
Suppose the question had asked “How do I find the approximate volume of an asteroid ?”. I doubt there would be any serious arguments for closing that question. If we are happy to accept a volume/...
- 47.5k
19
votes
Accepted
Is the demise of Stack Exchange (as we know it) ineluctable?
and then it is hard to tell if the curve is starting to increase again or stabilizing around a constant value of 7%.
I don't think this is hard. It's pretty obvious to me that the duplicate closure ...
- 131k
18
votes
Poor reception of 'why' questions
Not all "Why X?" questions are created equal.
The appearance of the word "why?" alone tells you nothing about a question. Let's go through your examples first to see explicitly what I mean:
The ...
ACuriousMindMod
- 122k
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 ...
- 351k
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 ...
- 75.8k
18
votes
Are questions about the identification of physical phenomena on-topic?
I agree and would vote to reopen if the closing vote weren't a mod. Reasons:
One does not know before asking the question what the answer is going to look like. Once you've seen the answer then one ...
- 19.7k
17
votes
Accepted
Are the implications of magic on-topic?
No, questions involving magical situations are not generally on topic here. Our help center lists "questions about fictional physics" as one of the off-topic categories. The reason is basically what ...
- 75.8k
17
votes
Does 'Semiconductor Physics' have a home in Physics SE?
There’s absolutely a place for semiconductor physics questions here. I’m pretty sure I’ve asked some.
Some questions on the topics you list are actually questions about electromagnetism and the ...
robMod
- 86.3k
16
votes
Why is Phys.SE so restrictive in the Q&A it is willing to accept?
For the same reason we weren't a homework help site before Physics Overflow was a thing: because we don't want to be that kind of site.
The user base of this site have debated the places that ...
16
votes
Is the demise of Stack Exchange (as we know it) ineluctable?
As long as there are new inventions and new discoveries, there will be new questions.
For the network as a whole: find your favorite programming language that is less than ten years old, and search ...
robMod
- 86.3k
16
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
- 86.3k
16
votes
Is EM theory appropriate on Physics.SE?
To address the question in the title:
Is EM theory appropriate on a physics forum
Yes, it is. The electromagnetism tag on this site has 12 thousand open questions. This is the second biggest tag on ...
- 131k
15
votes
Allowing mathematical and homework questions on this site
Personally, I think it is fine for a site to decide what is on-topic and what is off-topic for the site. A different choice wouldn’t have been wrong, but having a specific policy (whatever it is) ...
- 94.5k
15
votes
Allowing mathematical and homework questions on this site
What's wrong with a homework-like question? Homework questions are specially written to expand and question one's understanding - it's a totally valid way of learning. If you think someone's trying to ...
- 67.5k
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 ...
- 118k
14
votes
Why is everyone so keen to answer physics questions by writing down tons of equations?
There is more than one kind of physics question, and more than one kind of physics answer.
Some questions ask for getting an "idea" or "intuition" of how something works, ...
ACuriousMindMod
- 122k
13
votes
Accepted
How to handle references to literature in predatory journals
I don't think we need any additional policies about referring to or questioning about papers published through predatory journals.
Assuming the paper is mainstream...
Well, we don't really need to do ...
- 28k
13
votes
Accepted
Is a "how should these experimental results be interpreted?" question admissible?
I think the specific question you seem to have in mind here - "can the results of X be explained with theory Y?" - is perfectly on-topic, as long as X and Y are parts of mainstream physics.
...
ACuriousMindMod
- 122k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible