Today’s Atlantic Trivia: Lasers!

Updated with new questions at 3:50 p.m. ET on March 3, 2026.

There’s an old rule of thumb that you retain about 10 percent of what you read, 20 percent of what you hear, 30 percent of what you see via image or video, and so on up the ladder of experiential learning, until you get to a 90 percent retention rate for the things you learn by doing yourself.

The teeny problem is that none of this is backed by science; it’s a bastardization of the “cone of learning” that the education theorist Edgar Dale developed but never intended to be prescriptive.

But doesn’t it feel right? So don’t just read Atlantic stories. Do them, with this week’s Atlantic Trivia.

Find previous questions here, and to get Atlantic Trivia in your inbox every day, sign up for The Atlantic Daily.

Tuesday, March 3, 2026

1. “People grew up, got married, got divorced, had children, got old and all the time the portrait of [him] hung over their heads,” wrote the Soviet poet Joseph Brodsky in March 1973, 20 years after the death of what man?
   — From Gal Beckerman’s essay on crying at moments of dramatic change
2. Which two members of Congress introduced the piece of legislation enacted in summer 2010 that overhauled financial regulation after the Great Recession?
   — From Annie Lowrey’s article on the disappearing American mortgage
3. In what film does a cowboy explain to peers who are impressed by an interloper’s seemingly advanced weaponry that “it’s not a laser. It’s a—it’s a little light bulb that blinks”?
   — From Jacob Stern’s article on modern militaries’ use of lasers

And by the way, did you know that a sufficient supply of standard-issue laser pointers, arrayed so as to focus their beams on a single point, could theoretically burn clean through an eyeball?

Some back-of-the-napkin math from a scientist at the American Physical Society found that 200,000 or so laser pointers mounted on the inside curve of a sphere the size of a small car would do the trick—and melt the brain, too, if the laser-ee sat still for long enough.

A grisly end to be sure, but also delicious vindication for all the moms who ever said Careful where you point that thing.

Until tomorrow!

Answers:

1. Joseph Stalin. Brodsky understood what Gal has seen in the days since the death of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: Loyalists and dissidents alike cry when a dictator who has deeply wormed into their consciousness is suddenly no longer there. It is a reaction to the loss, Gal writes, of “what felt like a fixed reality.” Read more.
2. Chris Dodd and Barney Frank. One of the effects of the Dodd-Frank Act, Annie writes, was the tightening of mortgage lending and underwriting standards, which “made the financial system safer, but also made buying a home harder for many people.” Now, even amid low unemployment and rising wages, the share of U.S. homeowners hasn’t increased in half a decade, Annie reports; young and working-class people are missing out on the “property ladder.” Read more.
3. Toy Story. The lasers that militaries are starting to deploy today are rather more powerful than Buzz Lightyear’s piddly facsimile. Stern provides an overview of the technology and the geopolitical implications—but he also warns that by focusing too much on the details, one risks losing sight of “something arguably even more profound: Laser guns are real now.” Read more.

How did you do? Come back tomorrow for more questions, and if you think up a great question after reading an Atlantic story—or simply want to share a fact—send it my way at trivia@theatlantic.com.

Monday, March 2, 2026

1. In a 1977 book by Beverly Cleary, what titular little girl suddenly finds herself spending more time with Mr. Quimby, her out-of-work father?
   — From Eric Magnuson’s essay on literary depictions of stay-at-home dads
2. What term collectively refers to the mysterious and debilitating health issues that have affected dozens of U.S. personnel in Cuba since the mid-2010s?
   — From Vivian Salama’s article on where Cuba fits into President Trump’s interventionism
3. The popular Thai beverage Krating Daeng—named after a horned bovine of Southeast Asia—was adapted for the West in the 1980s by an Austrian businessman who gave it what English name?
   — From Ellen Cushing’s article on how a certain category of drink is pivoting toward women

And by the way, did you know that the United States once reportedly planned to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro with a booby-trapped seashell? U.S. intelligence knew that Castro was an avid scuba diver, so it allegedly planned to load a particularly irresistible-looking mollusk with explosives and hope that Castro drifted by to investigate.

The scheme stands out as particularly outlandish, which is really saying something: The retired Cuban counterintelligence chief Fabián Escalante alleged that the CIA came up with 638 plans in total to assassinate Castro.

Answers:

1. Ramona. Magnuson, who recently pulled together what he reckons is literature’s most comprehensive list of stay-at-home dads, notes that Ramona’s time with her father isn’t of particularly high quality; he mostly smokes and watches TV. It’s a sad stereotype of the incompetent at-home dad, Magnuson writes, that persists even decades later. Read more.
2. Havana syndrome. For decades, Vivian writes, Cuba has been a “persistent and bipartisan annoyance,” and now, after dramatic interventions in Venezuela and Iran, Trump might think he has the momentum to end that annoyance once and for all. She expects that the pressure for regime change will only grow. Read more.
3. Red Bull. The energy-drink market has transformed time and again since then, Ellen writes. In the early 2000s, it aligned itself with masculinity. After that, energy drinks were all about fitness. Now, in pastels and pinks and such flavors as Guava Lava, Ellen says, the drinks are coming for the ladies. Read more.