Investigating the Effect of Light Intensity on the Size of a Plantain Leaf
Title: To investigate the effect of light intensity on the size of a
plantain leaf.
Hypothesis: I predict that the size of the plantain leaves would
increase as the light intensity decreases. Therefore, plantain leaves
found in the shade will have larger surface areas than leaves found in
an open area.
Theory: Sunlight is an essential factor need to complete the process
of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis consists of the following equation:
Sun light
Carbon dioxide + Water ========> Glucose + Oxygen
Chlorophyll
Chlorophyll is a substance found in chloroplasts, found in the cells
of leaves. They are used to produce glucose which is used as plant
food and growing materials (e.g. cellulose).A leaf which is exposed to
plenty of light will have sufficient amounts of food and will not need
an excessive amount of chlorophyll. This enables the leaf to have a
small surface area. It is also necessary for leaves in areas of high
light intensity, and thus high temperature, to have small leaves to
reduce the amount of transpiration. The heat will cause water to
evaporate a lot faster.
Leaves in shaded areas will need a large surface area full of
chlorophyll to collect as much sun light as possible; essential for
survival. These leaves will also have no threat of excessive
transpiration because the temperature in the shaded area will be lower
and the humidity probably higher.
Transpiration is the removal (evaporation) of water from a plant
through the stomata in the leaves; this water is removed in a cycle
due to the active uptake from the roots. Transpiration involves
osmosis; which is the diffusion of water from a high concentration to
a lower concentration through a partially permeable membrane, until
both the concentrations are equally saturated.
All these factors i.e. transpiration and photosynthesis, come together
to confirm my hypothesis.
To support my hypothesis further, I did a pilot study in a meadow in
which I studied the population of certain plant species in areas of
stems of Ivy, one from the part of the garden that is exposed to lots
Investigating the Abiotic Factors that Affect the Size of Ivy Leaves in Shaded and Unshaded Habitats
...azy from a lack of water. "When Billy saw the condition of [the horses], he burst into tears. He hadn't cried about anything else in the war" (197). Even during other parts of his life "Billy cried very little, though he often saw things worth crying about" (197). People seem to lose their sense of compassion for life. We often treat animals as inferior emotionless creatures, and in war, we kill other humans for things that really require no killing.
Throughout the novel, one of the author's style of writing was to jumble events up, ranging from Billy’s experiences in war to his simplistic life as an optometrist. In each and every instant that something similar happened between two moments in his life, Billy would either jump forward in time or go back, as far as his birth. One particular distinct event that should have made Billy rewind to but did not was the horrendous Dresden bombing. That dreadful and fearful event that arose as his time as a prisoner of war was much to gruesome to endure more than the initial time. He does not wish to see human suffering simply because he cannot accept it. This constant time travel that Billy undertakes never occurs at the moment the bombing took place. During the novel, when this event was approaching, the soonest Billy visited was the before the bombing. This disaster had a powerful impact on Billy since with his knowledge he had gained from Tralfamador, he understands that he cannot change that moment of his past. It brings more relief to him to “sustain his daughter’s scolding than it is to endure the fire-bombing once again.” (qtd. In Schatt Stanley. "Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.EXPLORING Novels, Gale, 2003.) This portrays how, compared to having to face the destruction of a city and innocent civilians, a
Kurt Vonnegut’s anti-war science fiction novel entitled, Slaughter House Five otherwise known as “The Children’s Crusade” or “A Duty Dance with Death,” is a classic example of Vonnegut’s eccentric and moving writing capabilities.Originally published in 1969, Slaughterhouse-Five pays tribute to Vonnegut’s experiences in World War Two, as an advanced scout in the 106th infantry division, a prisoner of war and witness to the firebombing of Dresden on February 13th, 1945 in which 135,000 people were killed, making it the greatest man-caused massacre of all times.This novel illustrates the cruelties and violence of war along with the potential for compassion in human nature and all that it encompasses.
In Vonnegut’s science fiction and dystopian novel Cat’s Cradle, the main character, John, demonstrates his personal growth and from that, his enlightened attitude towards the unnecessary horrors that war creates. In the beginning of the novel, John sets out to discover and gather information on what people’s lives were like the day that the atomic bomb dropped. Along his path of discovery, he meets the Hoenikker family, of which Felix was the patriarch and the creator of the elusive, dangerous material ice-nine. John then gets sidetracked of his initial quest and becomes infatuated on his pursuit for more knowledge about ice-nine. From there, he stumbles across more of the Hoenikker children as well as the Bokonon people and their peculiar faith. Once John is on the island he learns of the disastrous potential that ice-nine has, and by the end of the novel, witnesses it’s power as it kills virtually the entire human race. At the very end of the novel, John recognizes what his quest for ultimate truth led him to (destruction of humanity) and furthermore sees the cruel, blind and horrible nature of war (ice-nine/weapons of mass destruction). Vonnegut’s next book, Slaughterhouse-Five, another science-fiction novel that was written just a few years after details the life of Billy Pilgrim, a goofy, awkward, and incompetent guy whose life never seems to turn out the way he anticipates. When Billy was a young man, against his wish, he was drafted to fight against the Germans in World War II. As most men do in war, Billy experiences horrific sights on and off the battlefield. As a result he greatly traumatized for the rest of his life because of it. Then, in h...
product and glucose levels. Plants trap the energy in sunlight using chlorophyll, a light trapping pigment found in leaf plant cells. It then uses carbon dioxide which enters the plant through small holes found. on the underside of the leaf called stoma and water which enters the
The substance that absorbs sunlight is chlorophyll, which is mainly contained in chloroplasts. This energy is used to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into sugars. This conversion creates the waste product oxygen, which is used by humans for breathing. Without being able to photosynthesise plants will stop growing and die. In a plant growing in the dark the chlorophyll will slowly be destroyed causing them to use their food reserves.
How Surface Area Affects the Rate of Transpiration of Leaves? To show that transpiration did occur on a leaf we did a preliminary experiment. The sand is a sand. We took two plants, and set them in a bell jar, one of the plants was cut beneath its leaves, so that we could show that if it did transpire, it would be from the leaves and not the stem.
I chose to measure this growth by observing the number of stomata present on the underside of leaves exposed to the dark and to sunlight. Based on the idea that there are more open stomata present on leaves exposed to the sun, my hypothesis that 'Factors which might affect stomatal opening' (Light) there will be more stomata on the plants exposed to the light. Hypothesis = == ==
The Effect of Water Concentration on the Mass of Potato Tissue Aim: The aim of this investigation is to discover the effect of water concentration on the mass of potato tissue, and also to investigate the movement of osmosis through potato tissue. Scientific Knowledge: When a substance such as a sugar dissolves in water, the sugar molecules attract some of the water molecules and stop them moving freely. This, in effect, reduces the concentration of water molecules.
Photosynthesis is a process in which plants and other organisms convert the light energy from the sun or any other source into chemical energy that can be released to fuel an organism’s activities. During this reaction, carbon dioxide and water are converted into glucose and oxygen. This process takes place in leaf cells which contain chloroplasts and the reaction requires light energy from the sun, which is absorbed by a green substance called chlorophyll. The plants absorb the water through their roots from the earth and carbon dioxide through their leaves.
The Effect of Light Intensity on the Rate of Photosynthesis in an Aquatic Plant Introduction The input variable I will be investigating is light, as light is just one of the 4 factors required in the green-plant process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the process by which green-plants use sunlight, carbon dioxide, water & chlorophyll to produce their own food source. This process is also affected by the temperature surrounding the plant (the species of plant we experimented with, pond weed, photosynthesised best at around 20 degrees centigrade.) Light, temperature & CO2 are known as limiting factors, and each is as important as the next in photosynthesis. Light is the factor that is linked with chlorophyll, a green pigment stored in chloroplasts found in the palisade cells, in the upper layer of leaves.
According to scientists, photosynthesis is “the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water. Photosynthesis in plants generally involves the green pigment chlorophyll and generates oxygen as a byproduct.” ("pho•to•syn•the•sis,")
The reason light intensity is being used compared to whether or not a plant needs light. It is because The experiment wants to show that the rates of photosynthesis will vary according to how much light from a light bulb will be trapped in. the chloroplasts, in the leaf. The more energy trapped the more efficient a chemical reaction can take place and the speed of photosynthesis will increase. There are many things which can affect the photosynthesis of a plant such as light intensity, temperature and carbon dioxide levels.