Willow Tree Research Paper

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Jan Baptist van Helmont performed a willow tree experiment. He used a five pound willow and an earthen pot containing two hundred pounds of dried soil to support his hypothesis that if the willow tree formed its tissue by absorbing the nutrients from the soil then the soil should lose weight as the plant grows. The dependent and variables in this experiment are the willow tree and the soil. The independent variable is the water he puts on the willow tree. The water is also the controlled variable. He concluded one hundred- sixty four pounds of wood, barks, and roots arose out of water only. (1) He learned that the tree drew its nutrients, not from the soil, but the water. So therefore his hypothesis was incorrect. This experiment showed that …show more content…

He showed light is essential to plant respiration and that the gas plants produce in light is oxygen. (3) This caused him to be the discoverer of photosynthesis. He was born in 1730 in what is now the southern Netherlands. When he was only sixteen he began his study of medicine at the University of Leuven. He received his MD in 1753. When he transferred himself to England he personally met Ben Franklin. Henry Cavendish, and Joseph Priestly. He soon traveled to Calne, A town in England. In the same laboratory his friend Joseph Priestly discovered oxygen, Ingenhousz carried out his research on photosynthesis.(3) In his experiment he placed plants under water in a clear container and noticed that their leaves made bubbles in sunlight. When he placed those plants in darkness the bubbles disappeared. He also noticed that the leaves and chlorophyll were where the gas was produced. He took the gas and tested it. The gas turned out to be oxygen. Also that in darkness it released carbon dioxide. The hypothesis was if he placed the plant in sunlight then he would see how it forms and what it does. The dependent variable was the plant and soil. The independent variables were sunlight and dark. He concluded that in the light plants produce oxygen and when in the dark plants produce carbon dioxide. This was the discovery of

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