When to reference and is a simple reference ever enough?

Question

It is my style to attempt to include definitions of terms in answers; which may or may not be appropriate.

I would like to know if it would be considered OK to just include a reference without details for a major site like wikipedia?

For example, if someone asked how to compute current given voltage and resistance I would reference ohm's law in the answer. Generally I try to include a reference to wikipedia as a preferred source for such definitions.

You can see my style from the preceding paragraph. Now a reference to ohm's law is probably unnecessary for 99% of the members here, but for a reference to Snell's Law a link may be helpful for many junior members.

By the guidelines of this site, I should not be simply including links; the idea being that they may go away. This is perfectly logical for personal sites etc, but for Wikipedia?

The thing is I really don't like the available options which I see as:

1) Don't bother to include a link to a definition of the term, law, formula etc. OK for senior members but less useful for newbees.

2) Include text in the answer as well as the link. While this seems OK it has the undesirable side effect of creating verbose answers that are really only useful to junior members (what real EE wants to see a paragraph detailing Ohm's Law in an answer).

I'm looking for advice and guidance please.

Answer 1

Personally I don't like just a reference if it's a important point to your answer. If find it annoying that a link needs to be followed to get basic information.

The reader should be able to get the basics of what you are saying from the text of the answer alone. Links are fine as long as they contain additional background that can be safely skipped by someone just wanting the answer and not a lot of detail behind it.

For example, if you think you need to teach Ohm's law to the OP, spend a sentence or so explaining it at least basically, then provide a link with additional details if you want to. I don't remember off the top of my head what Snell's law is (I probably know the law but don't remember the name), so I find your reference to it above annoying. If you spent just a few words like "relates voltage to the phase of the moon and number of apples on the table", I'd probably think "oh, right, that one".

I guess it all comes down to how central the thing you are referencing is to your answer. The more central, the more the salient points should be directly in your answer.

 

Answer 2

I agree with Olin that links aren't sufficient. Try to include the information in your answer. You can do this for instance using the blockquote if the description is a bit longer. People who want to skip it will see immediately where your main story continues. Like in the Snell's Law example.

Snell's Law describes the relationship between incident angle of a wave on a boundary between two media and the refraction.
Snell's Law: \$ \dfrac{sin \theta_1}{sin \theta_2} = \dfrac{n_2}{n_1}\$
where \$\theta\$ is the angle and \$n\$ is the refraction index.

I've commented before that I'm not so fond of Wikipedia. I agree that it's easy, one stop shopping-wise, but I prefer documents from other sources, like academic papers, or in the case of electronic products, manufacturer's publications. For example if you want a link for the LM555 timer I prefer National's (TI's) datasheet over Wikipedia's page about the IC. This may be like forcing you to read datasheets, but that's a skill every electronics engineer has to master.