Thermal Physics

Plants require food and water to survive and grow, just like humans. The limitations of factors in an environment can affect the growth of a plant. If a plant’s environment does not support the plant’s necessities, then it will come to be a limiting factor for the development of the plant. In addition, light intensity and temperature greatly impacts the growth of a plant. To begin with, light intensity is vital to plants as it has an important role in the process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis converts energy from the sun into food sources such as glucose and starch for the plants to grow. More light equals higher rate of photosynthesis, thus more sugars are produced for the plant. Secondly, the temperature of an environment also effects plant growth because it also influences the rate of photosynthesis. Higher temperature means a higher rate of photosynthesis and lower temperature means a lower rate of photosynthesis. Additionally, there are also other factors that effects plant growth, which is plant nutrition and fertilisers.

Plants have 13 mineral nutrients (In class notes, biology exercise book 2014). There are two main subgroups of mineral nutrients: macronutrients and micronutrients. The macronutrients are essential for plant growth can be divided into two groups: primary nutrients and secondary nutrients (In class notes, biology exercise book). The primary nutrients are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Plants normally need large quantities of these for growth and survival because the soil often lacks of these nutrients (In class notes, biology exercise book). Secondary nutrients are calcium, magnesium and sulfur. There is usually a sufficient amount of the secondary nutrients. Similarly, the micron...

... middle of paper ...

...act of the functions of a plant, including: the opening and closing of stomata, the rate of photosynthesis and/or the rate of transpiration.

An experimental inquiry will be carried out to investigate the effect of fertilisers on plant growth and to see which one out of the organic and inorganic fertilisers will help the plant grow more efficiently. For this experiment, basil plants will be used.

The inorganic plants will have the most growth as it will receive inorganic fertilisers. On the contrary, the organic plants and the controlled plants will not grow as effectively as the inorganic plants because the organic plants will use organic fertilisers and the controlled plants will not receive any fertiliser at all.

The fertiliser used for the organic plants was the Eco-Fish fertiliser and the fertiliser used for the inorganic plants was the Thrive fertiliser.