Where is the correct forum to ask questions?

  • #1
F X
13
2
For example.

I have a question, about what branch of physics would the question be asked?

And is that how you do it here? Ask questions based on which branch it might concern?

Is there a questions topic anywhere? I looked. Many times.

I'm not even sure if this section is the place to ask about asking questions.

Is starting a topic to ask a question the correct procedure?

If not, what is the correct path?

If this exact same question has been asked before, what is the way to find it?

I found this -
https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...e-shall-i-ask-this-type-of-questions.1058288/

- before asking here. That topic was zero percent helpful.

The issue I am trying to solve, is where do you find, or start a topic, to discuss which branch of physics a topic belongs in?

For example: Where would a discussion (or questions) about extreme pressure, causing a plasma, which created intense electromagnetic fields, where does that belong?
 
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  • #2
Click on this to get a list of forum topics. That is as granular as it gets. Below that, you have to decide yourself where the topic belongs.

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  • #3
F X said:
For example: Where would a discussion (or questions) about extreme pressure, causing a plasma, which created intense electromagnetic fields, where does that belong?
What about High Energy, Nuclear & Particle Physics?
 
  • #4
F X said:
what is the correct path?
Usually it's easy to find similar topics if there is a particular area of interest. Then, if you see that your question fits there you can ask safely.
The structure of the forum is rather straightforward and easy to understand (well, I think so, at least...). If a topic does not seem to fit anywhere, then usually it's because it'll still requires some work before posting.

Also, you can always ask the mentors most frequently active in the related subforums.
 
  • #5
If you are not sure you can always ask here, or in General Discussion, or even just post your question in Classical Physics - just state clearly you are not sure where it fits, and it will be moved by mentors.

Yes, if you don't know physics sometimes deciding where the question goes is difficult, but I am afraid if you even don't know where to ask, you may have problems understanding the answer. Beyond classical physics things tend to quickly get complicated for a layperson (that also happens with classical physics, but at least there it is easier to explain things in terms most people have some everyday experience with).
 
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  • #6
You can always post it, and report it. That will flag a Mentor to look at it and move it if appropriate.
 
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  • #7
F X said:
Is starting a topic to ask a question the correct procedure?
When asking a question in the PF technical forums, it works best if you can post links to some of the reading you have been doing about the question. That shows us that you've been doing some work on your own to try to figure out the question, and it also shows us the level of the sources that you have been reading. That helps us to best respond at a level that hopefully makes sense to you.

Also, in some of the technical forums the thread title will include a "prefix" that you can set to B/I/A for Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced for the level that you would like the replies to be. I is undergraduate university level, and A is graduate school level and above.
 
  • #8
Thank you. That is very helpful.
 
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