Effect of light on photosynthesis.

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Effect of light on photosynthesis.

What is photosynthesis?

Plants need and use the same light of foods as animals but while animals have to eat other things to get their food, plants make it themselves. The way they do this is called photosynthesis. The other ways that plants are different from animals, such as having leaves and root or being green, they are all linked with photosynthesis. In photosynthesis, plants take carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil, and use the energy from the sunlight to convert them into food. The first food they make is glucose but that can later be changed into other food types. The sunlight is absorbed by the green pigment chlorophyll.

Carbon hydrates contain the elements carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen as in glucose. The carbon and oxygen could be supplied by carbon dioxide from the air. In addition, the hydrogen could come from the water in the soil. The nitrogen and sulphur needed for making protein could come from nitrates and sulphates in the soil.

This builds up of complex food molecules from simpler substances this is called synthesis. It needs enzymes and energy to make it happen. Enzymes are presented in the plants cells and the energy for the first stages in the synthesis comes from sunlight, this is called photosynthesis. And that there is a green substance and chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is in the chloroplasts of the plant cells. Chlorophyll absorbs sunlight and makes the energy from sunlight.

                                                LIGHT

Carbon Dioxide + Water                                         Glucose + Oxygen

                                                CHLOROPHYLL

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Where does photosynthesis occur?

Photosynthesis takes place mainly in the leaves, although it can occur in any cells that contain green chlorophyll. Leaves are adapted to make them very efficient at photosynthesis.

Leaves are broad, so as much light as possible can be absorbed. A leave is thin, so it is easy carbon dioxide to diffuse in to each of the cells in the centre of the leaf. It also contains green chlorophyll, in the chloroplasts, which absorbs the light ...

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