How to search the internet well?

I reckon most of the questions except HW which are asked here have been discussed in the past in some corner of the internet. I wonder what one can do to search for it effectively. Do you have any tricks up your sleeve which you use when you feel like you are not getting discussions you should be getting while you search for it on the internet?

Slimy0233 said:

I reckon most of the questions except HW which are asked here have been discussed in the past in some corner of the internet. I wonder what one can do to search for it effectively. Do you have any tricks up your sleeve which you use when you feel like you are not getting discussions you should be getting while you search for it on the internet?

PF Search top right is a good place to start.

Tick “Titles only,” is my advice.

If it is Einstein related, or size/age of the universe, BB, Black holes, you will get a stack of hits.

A member may post a link of a relevant thread if they are about so you can read through first.

There are also insights articles, “insights blog” top menu next to forums.

Wiki is fairly decent on mainstream science, biology, chemistry, biochemistry and a lot of physics topics but tread carefully.

I do not think it is that bad but I am not a physicist!

Slimy0233 said:

Do you have any tricks up your sleeve which you use when you feel like you are not getting discussions you should be getting while you search for it on the internet?

The problem is often not that you do not get results that you want from a search, but that you do get a lot of results you don't want. You need to train yoursef to ignore the clickbait (e.g. the second hit on a search for "Casimir effect": "The Casimir effect: a force from nothing. The attractive force between two surfaces in a vacuum - first predicted by Hendrik Casimir over 50 years ago - could affect everything from micromachines to unified theories of nature."

Instead of being seduced by this pap, choose a link from one of the many reputable sources given: even Wikipedia (although as @pinball1970 says, be careful - welll-referenced stuff in the main paragraphs of an article are usually OK but be careful with something like

Constructed within the framework of quantum field theory in curved spacetime, the dynamical Casimir effect has been used to better understand acceleration radiation such as the Davies-Fulling-Unruh effect.^{[citation needed]}

If you are struggling to turn up anything sensible, restrict your search to a particular quality site by using e.g. "casimir effect site:nature.com".

Here are some tricks for technical searches, i.e. if you know the name of a field or theorem:
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-for-any-occasion.1016388/

If you are looking especially for "discussions on the internet", I would answer "Don't!". How will you solve the problem of not running into crackpot discussions? The only addresses I know of that are acceptable are

1. PF : https://www.physicsforums.com/search/ (advanced search option)
2. SE : https://stackexchange.com/ (physics and other sciences)
3. SO : https://stackoverflow.com/ (advanced version of SE)
4. Arxiv : https://arxiv.org/ (pre-prints and papers)

Generally, I always try to find information on university servers. That restricts me mainly to lecture notes, but they are at least reliable.

fresh_42 said:

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-for-any-occasion.1016388/

What brilliant treasure trove you have lead me to!

@pinball1970 and @pbuk thank you to both of you!

Slimy0233 said:

What brilliant treasure trove you have lead me to!

I think I have forgotten nLab in case you want to win a mathematical argument by the superior choice of words. It is an absolutely reliable source for mathematical definitions, however, mainly from the standpoint of category theory. (We say here: "shooting down sparrows with canons".)

fresh_42 said:

If you are looking especially for "discussions on the internet", I would answer "Don't!".

This.

Further, the OP has set himself the goal of learning the entirety of a BS in physics in 8 months - with perhaps a little more than 6 remaining. He should be hitting the textbooks, and not "looking for discussions on the internet."

I would even include PF to a degree. Being able to solve a problem, once it's been posted here and a half dozen people have helped with it is not going to be what is tested for.

Slimy0233 said:

Do you have any tricks up your sleeve which you use when you feel like you are not getting discussions you should be getting while you search for it on the internet?

Yep. Skimming through discussions is good to find the right words to search for, thus: learning the 'language' of the question you are looking for, but that's all it is good for.

If you stop at discussions, you just miss the knowledge. When you finally have the right words, keep on searching till valid references turns up.