Trivia Question of the Week

This week's question is pretty easy:

What is the largest state in the Union?

Hint #1: It's not Texas

Hint #2: I don't think you need four more hints.

Hint #3: Fine, for the sake of posterity, it's in the north.

Hint #4: The state motto is "North to the Future"

Hint #5: You really didn't need five hints.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Yes, it's Alaska. More or less a dead giveaway for this week, but Alaska is so big I'd thought I'd share some fun facts. Alaska's land area is nearly 600,000 square miles-- larger than Texas, California, and Montana (the next three largest states) combined. The distance from the southernmost point of southeast Alaska to the westernmost point in the Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska is equivalent to the distance between Charleston, South Carolina and San Diego, California-- the width of the entire country! The coastline of Alaska is longer than that of the entire coastline of the contiguous United States.

The US may share a border with both Mexico and Canada, but it's also pretty close to Russia, thanks to Alaska. The distance between Little Diomede Island (US) and Big Diomede Island (the easternmost point of Russia) in the Bering Strait is just 2.4 miles.

Everything may be bigger in Texas, but it turns out that Texas just really isn't all that big. :)