Question: It seems there are the beginnings of an edit war going on with [how can counting the number of cracks in glass tell you about the speed of imact?](https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/78191).

Now the question has a few problems:

* It doesn't stand particularly well on its own, requiring reading an external link for background.
* It doesn't discuss the question in such a way as to guide answers to the desired level of detail.
* It is partially phrased in the imperative, rather than the interrogative.

**However**, as far as I can tell, **it has nothing to do with homework**, either in actuality or conceptually. Someone was reading a scientific news article and had a question about the physics behind a phenomenon. It certainly doesn't sound like someone wants a particular problem solved - I read it as asking for the concepts behind some claim.

So **why was this tagged as homework?** Is the new policy to use [homework](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/homework "show questions tagged 'homework'") to filter out questions certain users don't particularly like?

Answer: 
I'm late to the party but I want to say this.

The original phrasing for this question closely matched a very common pattern seen in real homework questions:

> 
> [Statement of a homework or other textbook problem.]
> 
> 
> Solve this please.
> 
> 
> 

There are a number of variations of this (see e.g. [this](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/763/amount-of-2-amperage) or [this](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/77769/how-can-you-prove-generalised-jacobi-identity) or [this](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/69991/what-is-the-alternative-of-pmg-permanent-magnet-generator-in-a-horizontal-axis) question) but they generally give a feeling of entitlement: the OP *demands* (even if they do it politely) that some expert drop what she's doing and give him exactly the explanation - without overdoing it and using only the right hints - that will get them an A.

I do not think this should have the homework tag on it, but I can definitely understand a certain trigger-happiness on the part of the people that wanted that.
Dimension10 has given the [link](https://physics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/714/how-do-i-ask-homework-questions-on-physics-stack-exchange) to where the policy is laid out clearly in David's answer:

> 
> What kinds of questions are considered homework questions?
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> A "homework question" is any question whose value lies in helping you understand the method by which the question can be solved, rather than getting the answer itself. This includes not just questions from actual homework assignments, but also self-study problems, puzzles, etc.
> 
> 
> On the other hand, questions that come up in the course of doing a homework problem, but are separate from the main point of the problem, might not be considered homework questions. There's a bit of a judgment call to be made, depending on the context of the problem. If you're not sure, it's probably safer to treat your question as a homework question and later find out that it isn't, than the other way around.
> 
> 
> 

Which points out that the dividing line is rather vague, and therefore could make most of the questions here homework if we relied on this definition, rather than our own personal view based upon common experience

As I understand it, the whole point of the homework tag is to enable people to filter out the tedious **unoriginal** questions found in most text books. Therefore, I don't think any problem thought up by someone for themselves should be tagged homework, unless it's universally recognized as a standard text book problem designed for students.

update:
-------

It turns out that the main purpose behind the homework tag is to prevent students cheating on their homework assignments, which should make things considerably clearer on when to tag a question as homework: **Does this question look as if it could be given to a student by a teacher as a graded exercise?**