Yesterday, we Family Tree Magazine editors got to thinking about just how big the Family History Library's collection is. I don't even know what inspired us, but we wondered—would the FHL's microfilm reach to the moon?

We did the calculations—and they won't. But it's still pretty far:

The FHL has 2.4 million rolls of microfilm. A microfilm box is about 4 inches wide. A mile is 63,360 inches, and the FHL's got 9.6 million inches of microfilm boxes, assuming they're all a standard size. Laid end to end, those boxes would stretch about 151.5 miles.

So you could get from Salt Lake City nearly to Pocatello, Idaho, on the FHL's microfilm boxes. Or from Indianapolis to Gary, Ind., or if they were in Texas, from Fort Worth to Abilene.