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I recently posted a question with the title "Weird geometry problem with very elegant result".

While this title is truthful (I explain the weirdness in the body of the question, and the result is indeed elegant), it sort of reeks of clickbaitiness, which might annoy some users. Is this a problem, and if so, what would be a better title?

I think there is not enough space in the title box to completely and non-awkwardly express the question. If the title just gave the gist of the question, it would likely be incomprehensible and uninteresting.

I have read the advice on question titles.

I have already accepted an answer to the question, so I may or may not change the title based on answers here. But in any case I could use the advice in future.

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    $\begingroup$ I personally believe that the title of this meta post itself is clickbaity. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 16, 2023 at 5:04
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    $\begingroup$ @mathlander Meta-clickbaity? $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 16, 2023 at 12:29
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    $\begingroup$ The OP's Question on main Math.SE has been updated with a better title. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 16, 2023 at 15:20
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    $\begingroup$ Summarize the problem in the title, and stay clear of your commentary on how the problem made you feel. Your perception of weirdness and/or of "elegant result", are your subjective assessment/reactions to it. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 16, 2023 at 19:11
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    $\begingroup$ How about "Insane geometry trick your math professor doesn't want you to know"? $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 17, 2023 at 23:56
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    $\begingroup$ @mathlander: The title of this meta post summarises its question informatively, which — clickbaity or not — makes it a good title, unlike the original question. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 24, 2023 at 22:24
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    $\begingroup$ True titles can still be clickbaity. Examples: math.stackexchange.com/questions/4602208/… math.stackexchange.com/questions/4602683/… $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 24, 2023 at 22:25
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    $\begingroup$ Many times when I see meta-posts about pesky things like the current one I wonder if either the enquirer is serious and has too much time on his hands or just trying to create a laughing stock... what's even funnier is that some people actually take these questions extremely seriously and write an uttermost consequential and detailed answer. IMHO questions like this are clickbaits themselves ( for reasons that just can't always be described by words ) just like most other hot meta-posts ( that's probably the reason why they're "hot" in the first placed - because they're clickbaits ). $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 28, 2023 at 0:00

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Titles are supposed to be objective and informative, among other things. Your problem is about approximately finding the value of a parameter for a line to be tangent to three circles, which is a bit of a mouthful, but you can try something like "How to approximate a parameter that gives a tangent line to three circles?" or something along those lines. Your current title is subjective and uninformative: why is it a weird problem? Why is the solution elegant? I am not sure, and you should definitely pick a better one.

Also, why not use a more faithful image as in the comments?

enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ Thanks for the suggestion. About the faithfulness of the image: I would say that the image I used is faithful, given the size of the earth. The image by itself is misleading, so I clarified it in the question ("the ground is actually a circular arc of the earth"). $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 16, 2023 at 2:56
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    $\begingroup$ I just realized, the faithfulness of my image depends on the unit for distance (if the unit is metres, it's faithful; it the unit is 1000 km, not faithful). $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 16, 2023 at 4:56

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