• Question: What does Photosynthesis mean?

    Asked by january to Andrew, Daniel, Hayley, Natalia, Peta on 18 Nov 2011.
    • Photo: Daniel Scully

      Daniel Scully answered on 17 Nov 2011:

      Photo – means something to do with light.
      So we get:
      PHOTOgraph – the recording of light
      PHOTOn – a particle of light

      Synthesis means to make something.
      So we get:
      SYNTHetic – something that was manufactured but not natural
      SYNTHesizer – an electric device which make artifical sounds

      So photosynthesis means “making something with light”.

      In plants, they use the light to make a chemical reaction happen.

    • Photo: Peta Foster

      Peta Foster answered on 17 Nov 2011:

      Photosynthesis is a chemical process used by plants to convert carbon dioxide and water into organic compounds (sugars) that the plants can use for energy.

      For some reason it was one of the few equations i learnt at school and stuck:

      6CO2 + 6H2O =C6H12O6 +6O2 which is

      Carbon dioxide + water = Sugar + Oxygen

      We humans use oxygen to use the fuel in our bodies and we breath out carbon dioxide, so isn’t it wonderful that plants do the reverse for us… what would we do without plants? 😀

      Great question!

    • Photo: Natalia Parzyk

      Natalia Parzyk answered on 18 Nov 2011:

      and as Peta said in photosynthesis plants reusing carbon dioxide, what’s good for natural environment because excess of carbon dioxide is claim to be one of the sources of global warming, so that’s there is lots of concerns for example about saving Amazonian rainforest

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