• Question: why do plant use co2 for photosynthesis ?

    Asked by to Amelia, Izzy on 20 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 20 Mar 2014:

      Plants use co2 for photosynthesis because it is available in the air on earth.

      The carbon of carbon dioxide, is also the carbon which makes up the sugars to build plants (these sugars don’t taste sweet)

      The sun provides the energy for the plant to break up the carbon dioxide and allow the plant to use the carbon to grow! This is a long chemical process, but it is worth it!

      This is one of the most fascinating things, we’d be lost without plants!

    • Photo: Isabel Webb

      Isabel Webb answered on 20 Mar 2014:

      Carbon is one of the most important chemicals in our body, if not THE most important.

      All the carbon we get in our bodies started off as carbon dioxide in the air, which plants then took up for photosynthesis. The plants convert CO2 into glucose, which is a sugar. Glucose can then be converted by the plant into other sugars for storage, or can be broken down to release energy. The plant might also use the carbon to build other structures in the body – like DNA.
      Carbon dioxide is the only form of carbon that can be taken up by plants. Once plants use the carbon dioxide they have carbon-containing chemicals inside them. We then eat plants, and so we gain carbon-containing chemicals to give us energy, or use to build other structures in the body.

      The stores of glucose and some other sugars are often found in fruits – and this is what makes fruit so sweet. Some sugars aren’t sweet, such as those which make up the plant cell wall.

      Carbon has been a part of life since life began. We are carbon-based living things, and probably evolved like this because there is lots of carbon on Earth.
      Not many other chemicals could replace carbon. It is thought that silicon could – and maybe somewhere far far far out in space there are silicon-based living things!!!

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