Rate Of Photosynthesis Lab

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Nicole Fedder Biology 105 Sect 01 Photosynthesis Paper Rate of Photosynthesis Using Floating Leaf Disks Introduction Photosynthesis is an important process for all life on Earth. The process is used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy captured from the sun into chemical energy that is released as oxygen which can be provided to help fuel other organisms. Plants use this process to convert carbon dioxide gas that humans can’t breathe and break it down into oxygen. This oxygen is essential to all living organisms and is the main product of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis can be broken down into two types of reactions, light-dependent and light-independent. Light-dependent reactions take energy from a light source, usually…show more content…
A cork borer was used to puncture the leaf, avoiding the main veins. An applicator stick was used to gently remove the leaf disks from the borer. The plunger was removed from the syringe and the ten leaf disks were placed into a syringe barrel. The plunger was replaced without damaging the leaf disks only leaving a small volume of air in the barrel. Approximately 4mL of the NaHCO3 solution was pulled into the syringe. A finger was placed over the tip opening and the plunger was pulled back to the 10mL mark, thus creating a vacuum. The vacuum was held for 30 seconds while the solution was swirling to keep the disks mixed in. The vacuum was released by uncovering the tip and letting only the air out of the syringe. If disks did not sink, the vacuum process was repeated.Control variables were set up by using distilled water instead of NaHCO3. For both the experimental and control treatments, ten leaf discs were placed into their labeled plastic cups along with the appropriate solution of approximately 100mL. The cups were labeled: Cup A: 15 W Incandescent Light; NaHCO3 solution Cup B: 15 W Incandescent Light; H2O solution Cup C: 60 W Incandescent Light; NaHCO3…show more content…
Therefore the incandescent light proved more effective than the full spectrum light. Discussion The first hypothesis on the effect of the wattage of the light bulb on the production of oxygen in photosynthesis was correct. The sixty watt light bulb had a better T50 than the twenty watt light bulb. This is most likely due to of the amount of light given off by the sixty watt versus the amount of light given off by the 15 watt light bulb. With more light, there is more energy for the leaf discs to use to go through photosynthesis. On the other hand, the second hypothesis on the effect of the type of light given off by the light bulb was incorrect. The soft white incandescent light bulb had a faster T50 than that of the full spectrum/daylight light bulb. This may be because the leaf discs used during the test with the incandescent light bulb were not fully degassed. The full spectrum light bulb should have had more energy in it which should’ve caused the production of oxygen to be faster but that was not the

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