Photosynthesis: Magic at work!
That's right it's magic. That's all there is to it.
Actually, photosynthesis is not magic, although sometimes it seems like it is!
Photosynthesis is the process through which the earth keeps enough oxygen to
keep us alive. It occurs in green plants, and in plants like algae and many
of the small plants that make up what we call plankton that floats around in the
ocean.
So what happens in photosynthesis? Here's a basic equation:
|
6CO2 + 6H2O + light energy =
C6H12O6 + 6O2
|
Get all that? That was the "chemical equation" that describes what occurs in
photosynthesis. If you've taken a course in chemistry, you understood what it
says. If not, here is what it means in normal English. Carbon dioxide in the
air (we put carbon dioxide in the air when we breathe out) mixes with water that
the plant absorbed from the soil and light energy from the sun that hits the
plant's leaves combine inside the plant to form glucose (a sugar which is used
for energy in living creatures) and oxygen gas. This glucose is used by the
plant for energy, and the oxygen is released back into the air around the plant.
This oxygen spreads out through the process of diffusion to the rest of the atmosphere so that we can
breathe it!
