Title: What are the Effects of Light Intensity on the Rate of Photosynthesis and Oxygen Production in Plants? | Science project | Education.com
Headings: What are the Effects of Light Intensity on the Rate of Photosynthesis and Oxygen Production in Plants?
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What are the Effects of Light Intensity on the Rate of Photosynthesis and Oxygen Production in Plants?
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Content: Photosynthesis is the building up of sugar molecules using carbon dioxide and water as the raw materials. The energy for the process comes from light and a green pigment called chlorophyll which allows the plant to transfer the energy from light to sugar. The chemical equation for this process is shown below. 6CO 2 + 6H 2 O C 6 H 12 O 6 + 6O 2
Light Energy
This equation simply means that carbon dioxide from the air and water combine in the presence of sunlight to form sugar and oxygen is released as a by-product of this reaction. This test plant setup (See Figure 1) is placed in room with no light and then it will be exposed to light with varying degrees of intensity (based on distance). While exposed, the plants will produce a gas which is collected in an inverted test tube. Figure 1
After enough gas has been produced and collected, the test tube will be removed, and inverted, and a glowing piece of wood is inserted into the tube. The wood should burn more rapidly in the oxygen gas in the test tube than in the air. The behavior of the glowing piece of wood will show that the gas produced by the plants is oxygen. The fact that no gas was produced while the setup was kept in the dark showed that light was the cause of the production of oxygen.