# Must still need some work for a question that is now closed.

I recently added a question to stack.exchange and it was quickly put 'on hold'(and for good reason, it needed work). After having several helpful comments and a lot of editing I had thought the issues were resolved however I noticed as of today the question is now closed.

I am new to SE and want to be a productive member so would like some suggestions on how to improve the question and anything that had been overlooked.

Here is a link to the question, https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/895637/looking-for-identities-for-k1-2

• The close reason is not "show more work". It is "unclear what you are asking". I re-read your post twice; still unclear. You say you want some formulas for $k^{1/2}$ in terms of $k$. As an example, you offer $5^{1/2}=2\phi-1$. ? – user147263 Aug 19 '14 at 0:58
• Okay, the wording is still bad then. I will do a re-edit and see if that clears things up (or better yet perhaps a complete re-wording is in order). I have been given some new information on other sites that may be helpful as well (similar cases of confusion). After complete, if you wouldn't mind, another look would be appreciated! – eatscrayons Aug 19 '14 at 1:13
• Questions do not get reopened by themselves, even after good edits have been made. People have to know that the edits have been made. That can be done by what you've done here, posting a question to meta, but maybe better is posting an answer to the meta thread that has been set up for this kind of thing, meta.math.stackexchange.com/questions/6424/… – Gerry Myerson Aug 19 '14 at 6:31
• @Gerry Myerson wrote: People have to know that the edits have been made. If I am not mistaken, after a question is edited, it goes into review queue, where users can vote whether the question should be reopened or not. (But using the linked thread can increase the chances, since more people will see the question.) – Martin Sleziak Aug 19 '14 at 7:30
• @MartinSleziak That is true during the on-hold period; the referenced question is past that. – user147263 Aug 19 '14 at 11:49
• @Gerry Myerson I went to do a hard re-edit on the question this morning but noticed it is now 'deleted'. Unfortunately this means it is not in a form 'good enough' to make a request for an un-delete as there is still confusion. The proverbial rock and hard place. Any advise from members as what to do next would be appreciated! – eatscrayons Aug 19 '14 at 17:41
• You could start from scratch and post a new, carefully thought out question. – user147263 Aug 19 '14 at 17:47
• @900 sit-ups a day I didn't think that would be acceptable so I am glad to see this is an option. All input would be appreciated when complete! – eatscrayons Aug 19 '14 at 17:51
• @eatscrayons Thumbs up for dealing with your difficulties regarding that question in a constructive way. That is awesome. I am a bit skeptical whether it is possible to to narrow it down enough that definite answers will be possible, but not so much that it becomes uninteresting. But I hope you will manage, good luck. – Daniel Fischer Aug 19 '14 at 20:44

First you probably have some specifics in mind that weren't stated quite as explicitly as they could have been. For instance, "tell me all the identities that involve square roots on the left hand side" may have been intended to mean square roots $k^{1/2}$ of positive integers $k$. This begins the process of narrowing things down (and fits in with your example of the golden ratio).
Second, if pressed to narrow things further, you might decide to amplify (or discount) some of the familiar cases. For example, the Pythagorean theorem uses square roots. Is it of interest to you? E.g. "I know that $\sqrt{2}$ and $\sqrt{5}$ can appear as lengths of the hypotenuse of right triangles with integer length sides. For which integers $k$ is $\sqrt{k}$ possible?" The more specific the Question, the quicker Readers can determine if they know (or are interested enough to pursue) an Answer. Or, if something like that is not of interest, better to mention that it isn't than have Readers rushing to respond in that vein.