Patty Nelson, age 11, of Portland, Oregon, for her question:

How wide is the Pacific Ocean?

The widest part of the Pacific is 11,000 miles, almost halfway around the world. Its length is not so easy to estimate, for its northern waters touch the Arctic and to the south they mingle with. the icy seas around Antacrica.

Usually the Bering Sea is taken to be the northern boundary of the Pacific. Some people call the seas which sweep around Antarctica the Antarctic Ocean, but there is no natural boundary to set them apart from the Pacific, The great Ocean actually reaches‑some 20,000 miles from north to south,