up vote 8 down vote favorite

What should one do when having a short question to which one can't find the answer? With short questions I mean question which generally can be answered with 'no' or 'yes', a simple example, a simple hint, so on and so forth. Are we allowed to ask such short questions or not?

share
11  
Ask away! ${}{}{}{}$ – mixedmath♦ Dec 17 '12 at 22:28
3  
@mixedmath: How could you have missed the irony in posting that comment as an answer? Tsk tsk tsk. :-) – Asaf Karagila Dec 17 '12 at 23:31
Wow, an unequivocal yes!I was wondering because sometimes when I ask short and simple questions if feel they're not up to the site's standard. – ZafarS Dec 18 '12 at 8:01
ZafarS, most people just agree -- but others couldn't skip the opportunity to post a short answer to your question. :-) – Asaf Karagila Dec 18 '12 at 9:05

6 Answers

up vote 30 down vote

Yes. $ $

share
23  
I enjoy that this answer has an edit history. – Arkamis Dec 18 '12 at 18:37
up vote 14 down vote

enter image description here

share
up vote 6 down vote

Feel free to ask! Most questions on the site (not all mind you) have answers which aren't that long, only a few lines, and of these, almost all can have the main ideas of the answer summed up nicely with a short, one or two line hint (or a simple example/counterexample).

There's no problem with asking short/easy questions, although if there isn't much indication in the question that the asker has done any work towards the answer the most likely response is a comment saying "what have you tried" (and rightly so, in my opinion). Provided there is some form of working in the question, I can't imagine there are any objections that people could possibly have.

A good example of this type of question that has sprung up recently is the "check my proof" type questions, which provide a problem and a complete, or nearly complete proof where the actual question is just "is this proof correct?". Correct proofs usually get a comment saying something along the lines of "seems fine" and I've seen incorrect ones get quite good fixes for the given proof, and/or potentially better methods of doing it. No-one seems to mind these questions, and asking them appears to be very helpful.

share
And often even when a question could be answered very briefly, more illumination may come from a user who chooses to elaborate to help provide an all-around better understanding of the situation than would be given by "'no' or 'yes', a simple example, a simple hint, so on and so forth." – Jonas Meyer Dec 18 '12 at 19:17
Very true, there are many questions that would benefit from this kind of answer. On the other hand, sometimes I think some questions are better off being answered with only a small hint (or perhaps a series of small hints) so that the asker thinks the question out for herself. Of course, it depends entirely on the context, type and difficulty of the question! – Tom Oldfield Dec 18 '12 at 21:39
up vote 4 down vote

Go ahead.${}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}$

share
up vote 2 down vote

Yes, you are most welcome to ask such questions. In general, don't worry too much about how you think the answer might be. If you have a legitimate question, then just ask.

Even though an answer might just be 'yes', the answerer might still be able to point out some background. In my limited experience, if a person asks a simple question that simple 'yes' or 'no' answer, the question usually reveals something deeper that the questioner might have missed or misunderstood. A good answer might also point out how something simple is actually part of a bigger theory.

share
up vote 1 down vote

"Can $a^n + b^n = c^n$ be satisfied for integers $a$, $b$, and $c$ for $n>2$?"

"No."

Conclusion: people do not study math to find terse answers to complex questions. I am hopeful that most answerers on this site will understand this and elaborate where it is warranted.

share

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged