What Is the Function of Photosynthesis?

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Steve Jones, and I'm going to tell you something of the function of photosynthesis. Well let me say first of all, I wouldn't be talking to you now if there weren't photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the thing which turns carbon dioxide in water into sugar and oxygen into energy. And it does it by using radiation from the sun. So we use the radiation from the sun, the energy from the sun, to convert it into energy we as people can use, that is sugar. The trouble is we can't photosynthesize, if we could we'd be green, because we have to use a material called chlorophyll, and the chlorophyll is what actually helps this reaction to occur. In plants, the chlorophyll which is green in color, absorbs the radiation from the sun, and using the carbon dioxide from the air and the water it undergoes a reaction and we end up with sugar, which is the basis of our life, and oxygen, which is also very helpful for us too. We can use the sugar and the oxygen to create energy for ourselves, we burn sugar for our energy. So the whole point about photosynthesis is, we are using radiation from the sun, the suns energy and we're harnessing that energy in plants to create food which we can eat. So we can eat this sugar and we can grow as a result. So this is the function of photosynthesis."