Need help with homework?

[Trainwreck]

Stuck on that math theorem which seems too difficult to prove? Has the Great Depression topic gotten you blue again? Do you wish that the Mongols had invaded Europe and wiped English off the face of the planet? If so, then here's a topic where you may post any offending question which is irritating you and hear what someone else thinks. Anyone is welcome to post questions or answers - we should be able to field anything through high school, and we'll also tackle college-level problems (if we can ...)

A few guidelines, mostly lessons learned from past homework threads:

1. Don't make a post just to tell people what you can help them with. In the past, we've had problems with people hopping in to say that they were educated in _______ subject, only to never show up again even after a question of their specialty was brought up. It spams up the thread without contributing anything useful. Just drop in an answer when needed - it earns respect much more efficiently. :uhyeah:

2. Ideally, you should tell us when you need to turn in your homework set/essay/research paper. That way, we have a rough idea of how urgent the request is. (Hint: the sooner you post a question, the more time we have to respond and work out detailed answers.)

3. Don't rote copy solutions. Instead, think of what's being said and use any answer you receive as a guideline, not a carbon copy of what you'll turn in.

4. Hardly needs to be said, but stay on topic. Posts complaining about how difficult your homework is and such will probably attract moderator attention and we all know what lam*!%&#!$/@.

5. "I see, I know. I look, I learn. I do, I understand." - Confucius

 

[Cryozombie]

4. Hardly needs to be said, but stay on topic. Posts complaining about how difficult your homework is and such will probably attract moderator attention and we all know what lam*!%&#!$/@.

Trainwreck, you have attracted my attention.

What do you mean?

 

[Trainwreck]

I've seen too many homework threads spammed up by pointless rants and complaints that had no place there, which interfered with people who did need assistance of some sort. Consider that a friendly request to deal appropriately with any such posts.

4. Hardly needs to be said, but stay on topic. Posts complaining about how difficult your homework is and such will probably attract moderator attention and we all know what lam*!%&#!$/@.

Uh ... he said it!


On a more serious note, I apologize if my post has caused offense. I do realize that moderators have a job, often difficult, which must be done, and I appreciate your work here.


Finally, to prevent the thread from going too far off topic, here's a thermo problem that I've been working on without really reaching any conclusions:


Consider the Otto cycle, which models one cycle of a normal car engine. Assuming that the fuel injected is an ideal fluid, show that the efficiency of this cycle can be expressed solely in terms of compression. (I can't post an actual graph of the Otto cycle here, so you may want to Google for it.)


Just a note: the efficiency of a closed thermodynamic system is expressed as the total work done on and by the system divided by the energy input into the system. Efficiency always takes on values between 1 and 0.

 

[Flatlander]

So, the purpose of this thread is to help children with their homework?

 

[kenpo tiger]

Thanks Dan. I was going to ask the same question, although I tend to doubt that children are working on thermodynamics and so on.

To parrot the original premise of this thread -- and play Devil's advocate for a moment, pose a rhetorical question -- need help with homework? Why would *one* ask for help from a bunch of strangers in an online forum with only interest and/or practice in martial arts as the common denominator? Granted, there seem to be a large number of well-read and well-educated people in this particular area of the forum, but... and here we go again with being old-fashioned and so on (Robert?):

Isn't *one* supposed to be doing *one's* own homework? Used to be if someone was caught buying term papers and so on, they failed the course. Whatever happened to going to *one's* teacher for help -- or study groups -- or tutors?

I am not directing this at anyone in particular, as stated above. I just wonder why things have come to this, is all.

 

[Feisty Mouse]

3. Don't rote copy solutions. Instead, think of what's being said and use any answer you receive as a guideline, not a carbon copy of what you'll turn in.

I don't really know how you'd be able to control for this happening at all, if someone is desperate enough to seek out help, as kenpo tiger just said, strangers on a martial arts forum.

I'm sure that our kindhearted members would offer reference suggestions if someone had a question - but I don't know if anyone feels the urge do actually do someone else's homework for them.

 

[Cryozombie]

but I don't know if anyone feels the urge do actually do someone else's homework for them.

Oh, I dunno... I used to do it all the time for this girl in highschool.

What a sucker I was.

 

[Trainwreck]

Originally posted by Feisty Mouse
I don't really know how you'd be able to control for this happening at all, if someone is desperate enough to seek out help, as kenpo tiger just said, strangers on a martial arts forum.

Good point, but I thought I'd give this a shot since someone else already pointed out that we seem to have an unusually high number of knowledgeable people on this forum. It never hurts to ask, right?

Originally posted by kenpo tiger
Isn't *one* supposed to be doing *one's* own homework?

Anyone who rote copies down something we provide is of course taking responsibility for his or her action. The idea is that people can help here and provide insights that may not be available from a teacher or a fellow student. To my experience, this is rare at the high school level or earlier but happens quite frequently at the college level. This is the "help someone with homework" thread, not the "do homework for someone" thread.

Please note that this thread isn't meant to be a substitute for actually DOING one's homework or studying in groups or seeing one's teacher, and should be a last resort measure. Of course, if we have computer scientists in here who want second opinions on their code, or physical scientists who want second opinions on upcoming papers, or even aspiring authors who want to showcase their works, this thread could be open to all.

This place needs an edit button ... BTW, don't bother with that thermo problem, I solved it on my own after a few more hours of work.

 

[thepanjr]

Stuck on that math theorem which seems too difficult to prove? Has the Great Depression topic gotten you blue again? Do you wish that the Mongols had invaded Europe and wiped English off the face of the planet? If so, then here's a topic where you may post any offending question which is irritating you and hear what someone else thinks. Anyone is welcome to post questions or answers - we should be able to field anything through high school, and we'll also tackle college-level problems (if we can ...)

A few guidelines, mostly lessons learned from past homework threads:

1. Don't make a post just to tell people what you can help them with. In the past, we've had problems with people hopping in to say that they were educated in _______ subject, only to never show up again even after a question of their specialty was brought up. It spams up the thread without contributing anything useful. Just drop in an answer when needed - it earns respect much more efficiently. :uhyeah:

2. Ideally, you should tell us when you need to turn in your homework set/essay/research paper. That way, we have a rough idea of how urgent the request is. (Hint: the sooner you post a question, the more time we have to respond and work out detailed answers.)

3. Don't rote copy solutions. Instead, think of what's being said and use any answer you receive as a guideline, not a carbon copy of what you'll turn in.

4. Hardly needs to be said, but stay on topic. Posts complaining about how difficult your homework is and such will probably attract moderator attention and we all know what lam*!%&#!$/@.

5. "I see, I know. I look, I learn. I do, I understand." - Confucius

SO if i do all these things would it help me in homework

?