Up to date with new questions at 4:50 p.m. ET on November 18, 2025.
If I’ve supplied you with any factoids in the midst of Atlantic Trivia, I apologize, as a result of a factoid, correctly, is not a small, attention-grabbing reality. A factoid is a bit of knowledge that appears like a reality however is unfaithful. Norman Mailer popularized the time period in 1973, very deliberately giving it the suffix -oid. Is a humanoid not a creature whose look suggests humanity however whose nature belies it? Thus is it with factoid.
So what of these enjoyable, itty bits of information which can be right? Within the Nineties, William Safire advised factlet for the small-but-true reality (and The Atlantic in 2012 agreed), although minifact is usually used. And for the statements someplace in between attention-grabbing and unfaithful—factinimaybe? Begin with 5 components fascinating to at least one half mistaken; alter to style.
Discover final week’s questions right hereand to get Atlantic Trivia in your inbox day by day, join The Atlantic Day by day.
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
From the version of The Atlantic Day by day by Isabel Fattal:
- The producer Abbott as soon as produced about 40 p.c of the U.S. provide of a specific product. A 2022 recall by Abbott subsequently contributed to nationwide shortages. What is the product?
— From Nicholas Florko’s “America Has a (REDACTED) Downside—Once more” - A U.S. trial jury is smaller than a grand jury—therefore its additionally being recognized by what title containing French’s reverse of grand?
— From Quinta Jurecic’s “The Trump Administration’s Favourite Software for Criminalizing Dissent” - What is the time period for a paradoxical anecdote or riddle utilized by practitioners of Zen Buddhism to deepen their meditation?
— From Julie Beck’s “The right way to Cheat at Dialog”
And by the way in which, do you know that fewer people have visited the underside of the ocean than have gone to house? Relying on the way you depend, someplace between 600 and 800 have slipped the surly bonds of Earth; just a few dozen have pulled these bonds as tight as they’ll go by placing seven miles of Pacific Ocean over their head on the Mariana Trench’s Challenger Deep.
Then there may be Kathy Sullivan. She has been to each. Her trench journey was in 2020, and in 1984, she was the primary lady to finish a spacewalk. She is now, slightly charmingly, known as the world’s “most vertical” particular person.
See you tomorrow!
Solutions:
- Child method. The availability-chain catastrophe prompted regulators to discover methods to make the susceptible trade rather less so, however Nicholas writes {that a} new recall from a special producer is a reminder of how simply method making can crack. Learn extra.
- Petit jury. Quinta reviews that neither the grand juries empowered to indict nor the petit juries empowered to convict have been significantly satisfied by the Trump administration’s instances in opposition to the folks it alleges are “assaulting, resisting, or impeding” federal officers. Learn extra.
- Koan. “How do you cheat at a dialog?” sounds as if it could possibly be one, Julie muses, however it’s in reality the worth proposition of a brand new artificial-intelligence device. Cluely guarantees to provide customers any reply they may want in a social interplay, however Julie says it solely makes them worse. Learn extra.
How did you do? Come again tomorrow for extra questions, or click on right here for final week’s. And in case you assume up an important query after studying an Atlantic story—or just need to share a top-notch reality—ship it my approach at (electronic mail protected).
Monday, November 17, 2025
From the version of The Atlantic Day by day by David A. Graham:
- U.S. pennies are plated in copper however principally product of what different metallic on the finish of the alphabet?
— From Caity Weaver’s “Pennies Are Trash Now” - What beverage is historically product of floor tencha leaves, ready with a whisk, and drunk from a ceramic bowl known as a cha-wan?
— From Ellen Cushing’s “The (REDACTED) Downside” - Damaged chains and shackles had been initially supposed to be held within the left hand of what American landmark earlier than a brand new design changed these objects with a pill?
— From Clint Smith’s “Inform College students the Reality About American Historical past”
And by the way in which, do you know that for greater than six many years america produced half-cent items? They had been one hundred pc copper and stamped with Woman Liberty, who sported quite a lot of hairdos over time. The coin was virtually the dimensions of a contemporary quarter, which appears huge till you take into account that on the finish of its run, the half-cent had a buying energy of about 17 cents in immediately’s cash.
Nonetheless, in 1857 it was deemed insufficiently precious to maintain minting—at 17 modern cents! Contemplating that the federal government is as soon as once more within the coin-discontinuing temper, the nickel and dime would possibly need to be careful, too.
Solutions:
- Zinc. Penny minting abruptly stopped final week. The cash will quickly drop out of circulation, and their composition—zinc is far much less precious than copper—makes them unappealing to recycle. What this implies, Caity writes, is that these 300 billion pennies floating round at the moment are Individuals’ downside. Learn extra.
- Matcha. This old-school Japanese preparation is a far piece from the vitality drinks and sugary drinks that new firms are advertising as matcha. Ellen explores the ramifications of the collision between matcha’s custom and its present world-historic demand. Learn extra.
- The Statue of Liberty. The reward from France, Clint writes, was meant not simply to welcome immigrants but additionally to have a good time America’s abolition of slavery; he wonders whether or not the change was supposed to make the statue “extra palatable” to a wider viewers. That intuition has by no means gone away, and it’s the job of educators to withstand it. Learn extra.
