When two questions are with identical formulation but different numbers, can be marked as duplicate?
1 Answer
Not really.
Explanation:
When it comes to duplicate questions, we only merge questions that are absolutely identical. For practice problems, this implies both an identical formulation and identical numbers.
Mind you, identical is used loosely here, meaning that as long as two or more problems ask for the same thing and use the same numbers, their actual wording can vary and they'd still be considered duplicates.
For example, something like
What is the time of flight for a projectile launched at an angle
#theta = pi/6# with the horizontal with an initial velocity of#"10 ms"^(-1)# ?
and
How much time does a projectile launched at an angle
#theta = pi/6# with an initial velocity of#"10 ms"^(-1)# spend in the air?
would be considered duplicate questions and be merged, provided of course that we manage to spot them.
We don't merge questions that have identical formulation but different numbers because one of our long-term goals here is to build a vast database of solved practice problems.
The more solved problems we get, the bigger the expose and the more students we can reach.
Moreover, similar questions are often solved by different contributors in slightly different ways or using different approaches and teaching techniques, which will further help consolidate Socratic as the place for solved practice problems.
We don't want two or more contributors to work on the same problem if possible, at least not unless they do so by choice, which is why we only merge identical questions.
As a final note, I encourage anyone who spots duplicate questions to send me a note so that I can merge them. Any help in this regard is greatly appreciated! :D
