Same - I get the gist, but "how many lines lie on a cubic face" doesn't make sense as a question to me, what is a "line" in this context? I struggle to understand the issue as my only understanding is that the face is divided by line width which determines how many lines, but that's nonsensical and non interesting.

As an aside (again, as a layperson) I've had this feeling with most Quanta articles, it's interesting and I feel like I get the gist but that's all. Kinda like it's both too simplified and touching on too deep concepts to tie together the article.

Sorry for the rambling.

Edit0: how many straight lines going through the whole length of the face it is on on a cubic surface. Honestly, I just hadn't really pictured a cubic surface to start with - that was the main part. Had that picture been higher up I think I would have liked the article right away! Thank you peeps

For the articles from Quanta where I have a lot of prior knowledge, which is decidedly a small fraction of them, I think they mostly do a good job of accurately conveying the gist. It gives me more confidence in the articles that are outside my wheelhouse.

Quanta is one of the few examples in popular media I can think of where the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect does not seem to be operative. Or at least, if they are shoveling slop then they have a preternatural ability to hide it.