How to Outline the Process of Photosynthesis With the Products and Reactants
Almost all life on Earth is powered by photosynthesis, either directly or indirectly. Except for mushrooms and a few other lowly life forms, all life on Earth is either a green plant, eats green plants or eats things that eat green plants. Photosynthesis is how green plants take sunlight and carbon dioxide and make sugar. Photosynthesis is how the fuel of sunlight is converted into the energy that drives the engine of life on Earth.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Describe the general process of photosynthesis. Molecules are ripped apart and reassembled into new molecules. The starting molecules are called reactants, the ending molecules are called products and the energy that reassembles the atoms comes from sunlight.
-
2
Give the specifics of exactly what is rearranged with the formula 6H20 + 6CO2 --> C6H12O6 + 6O2. Six molecules water and six molecules of carbon dioxide are reassembled into one molecule of sugar and six molecules of oxygen. Carbon dioxide from the air and water from the ground make sugar, which is stored in the plant, and oxygen – the waste product – is expelled.
-
-
3
Show how photosynthesis fits into the ecology of life on Earth. The exchange of gases is the most obvious interdependence. Plants absorb carbon dioxide – which is poison to animals – and release oxygen, which animals need to live. Animals breathe oxygen – which is poison to plants – and exhale carbon dioxide, which plants need to survive.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Animal metabolism is based on an equation that is the exact opposite of photosynthesis: C6H12O6 + 6O2 --> 6H20 + 6CO2. One molecule of sugar and six molecules of oxygen combine to make six molecules of water and six molecules of carbon dioxide. Instead of needing energy, the reaction yields energy going in this direction. It is this energy that animals use to do things like move around and eat plants. The products, water and carbon dioxide, are expelled as waste. This interlocking system of photosynthesis and metabolism is what makes life work. The first life possessed neither photosynthesis nor metabolism, Photosynthesis evolved first and just before all the available carbon dioxide had been converted to oxygen, Animal life evolved and set up the stasis we observe today.
Do not think that the state of stasis that exists for life, as we know it, is the only way life could exist. At the bottom of the ocean at places called thermal vents, life exists in profusion miles from any sunlight and far from any organism that has ever been exposed to sunlight.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
