The Effect of Light Intensity on the Rate of Photosynthesis

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The Effect of Light Intensity on the Rate of Photosynthesis

Experiment: An experiment to investigate the effect of light intensity

on the rate of photosynthsis.

Aim: We will be trying to see if light intensity has an effect on the

rate of photosynthsis.

Introduction: Photosynthesis is the process that produces 'food' for

plants, this 'food' is called glucose. The process takes place in the

leaves of green plants, this is what the leaves are for. There are

four things that are required by the plant before it can carry out

photosynthesis, they are light, chlorophyll, carbon dioxide and water

. Chlorophyll is the green substance found in chloroplasts and this is

why leaves look green. The chlorophyll is very important because it

makes the whole process occur. It absorbs the energy from the sunlight

and uses it to combine CO2 and water to produce glucose. Oxygen is

given off as a by- product. The structure of a leaf is also very

important as it is designed to obtain as much CO2 as possible.

There are three features that makes the structure of the leaf unique.

1. They are very thin and flat to provide a large surface so it can

soak up lots of sunlight.

2. The palisade cells are arranged near the top of the leaf and are

full of chloroplasts, essential for photosynthsis.

3. The guard cells, on the bottom layer, control the amount of gas

movement in and out of the leaf.

There is a formula that lets us know the rate of photosynthsis, it is:

Carbon Dioxide + Water ® (sunlight +chlorophyll) ® Glucose + Oxygen.

6CO2 + 6H2O ® (sunlight + chlorophyll) ® C6H12O6 + 6O2.

The rate of photosynthsis can be altered by three factors which are

the amount of light, carbon dioxide and the temperature. The reason

why the amount of light is important is because the chlorophyll uses

light energy so it can only produce glucose as fast as it is receiving

sunlight. Carbon dioxide is always in short supply because only 0.

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