...inspiring classroom discussion in contemporary science
This video on the Grand Illusions website shows all the large aircraft flights in the world, over a 24 hour period. Each aircraft is shown as a little yellow dot. The video has been speeded up, so that 24 hours takes only 2 minutes on your computer screen!
The video would be an excellent way of introducing how air travel might be a contributory factor to Climate Change.
You can see that it is summer in the northern hemisphere from the sun's footprint over the planet. You can see that the sun did not quite set at the north pole, and did not rise at all at the south pole.
At the start of the video, you can see all the air traffic heading overnight from the US to Europe. Later on, as it becomes light in the US, you can see all the planes from Europe heading west towards the US.
It was originally created by the Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften (ZHAW) in collaboration with the Swiss Technorama Science Centre in Winterthur, Switzerland. You can see the original here - http://radar.zhaw.ch/