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How does photosynthesis work?

What is photosynthesis and how does it work?

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    The basic gist: 2nCO2+2nH2O+photons→2nCO2+2nH2O+photons→2n CO_{2} + 2n H_{2}O + photons \rightarrow 2nO2+2(CH2O)n2nO2+2(CH2O)n2nO_{2} + 2(CH_{2}O)_n That is, water and carbon dioxide provide the raw ingredients (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen) and the photons provide the energy.  The end state is a carbohydrate, a bigger molecule that has more energy than either the water or the carbon dioxide.  There is some extra oxygen atoms left over at the end, which bubble off, while the carbohydrate stays behind.  The carbohydrate can later be used to provide energy for metabolic reactions in the plant. That easy description hides a world of complexity.  The reaction above doesn't happen spontaneously (at least not in significant amounts) because the energy levels are too high.  The electrons don't spontaneously jump around like that.  You need catalysts. The most important catalyst is chlorophyll.  Chlorophyll has a remarkable property: hit it with a photon, and it gives off an electron.  That electron can be absorbed by another molecule, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate, causing an extra hydrogen molecule to stick to it.  With words like "nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate", we leave the realm of plain English, and we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of the problem. The details of photosynthesis actually occur in two parts: the part that activates clorophyll and stores the energy as ATP (adenosine triphosphate, the same molecule that powers your muscles), and a second part that uses the energy from the ATP and carbon from carbon dioxide to create glyceraldeyde-3-phosphate, a simple carbohydrate that can be used to build more complex carbohydrates. The first cycle is called "light dependent", since light is necessary to active the chlorophyll.  The second part is "light independent", since it can happen even when the lights are off. Both of these are actually a very complicated set of sub-reactions that go way beyond the "plain English" idea of the question.  You can add illustrations like this: but I don't think they're particularly informative without a lot of underlying chemistry talk.  (That's an illustration of the Calvin cycle, a key part of the light-independent part of the process.)

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What is photosynthesis? Is it just about making food using sunlight, carbon dioxide and water? Why can only green plants do so? Why does it happen only in the leaves? Honestly, what’s so special about plants? Find out about this and more in a microscopic way, by going into the plant itself!

Prannay Jha

Photosynthesis,  is the relationship between plants and the sun. The plants create a food that comes from the sun's energy.

Scott Judge

Processes involved in photosynthesis: Roots absorb water from the soil. Water is transported from the roots to the leaves by the stem. Chlorophyll in the leaves capture sunlight to act on water. Oxygen and moisture are given off to the air. Carbon dioxide enters the leaves through the stomata. Carbon dioxide combines with a substance in the cell, eventually producing a kind of sugar (I think it's glucose). The sugar (dissolved in water) is transported from the leaves to the different parts of the plant. Once the sugar reaches the different parts of the plant body, it may be used up by the cells. Or it may be converted into starch and stored for future use.

Monica Lopez

Processes involved in photosynthesis: Roots absorb water from the soil. Water is transported from the roots to the leaves by the stem. Chlorophyll in the leaves capture sunlight to act on water. Oxygen and moisture are given off to the air. Carbon dioxide enters the leaves through the stomata. Carbon dioxide combines with a substance in the cell, eventually producing a kind of sugar (I think it's glucose). The sugar (dissolved in water) is transported from the leaves to the different parts of the plant. Once the sugar reaches the different parts of the plant body, it may be used up by the cells. Or it may be converted into starch and stored for future use.

Melissa Brigham

William Halmeck

The process of which plants make food with the help of sunlight ;       carbon  dioxide & water is called photosynthesis

Ganesh Pandharinath Gore

Plants make food with CO2 and Water in presence of Sunlight and Chlorophyll called Photosynthesis.

Urmila Agrawal

The process of making food in plants is known as photosynthesis.photo - light and synthesis- to build up . So photosynthesis is the building of food in the presence of light. In photosynthesis plants take up water from soil and the water reaches to the mesophyll cell of a leave . There photolysis of water takes place and oxygen is released in the atmosphere . And the hydrogen protons and electrons dissolves in the stroma to form NADP-NADPH and ADP-ATP . Then NADPH and ATP reacts with co2 and RUBPH to release carbohydrates,water and energy. The photolysis of water is known as light reaction .. and the from utilisation of co2 starts the dark reaction .. hope it will help you :-) :-D

Siba Prasad

The process by which green plants and some other organisms use  sunlight to synthesize nutrients from carbon dioxide and water.  Photosynthesis in plants generally involves the green pigment  chlorophyll and generates oxygen as a by-product.

Charles Head

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