Here is the thing, before I reveal the environmental element which is responsible for getting the trees most of their mass, I would like to give a hint; Photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis simply means making with light.If you are lucky enough to understand the complete process of Photosynthesis in your school then you might get its answer right away, if not? You would just have to further scroll down to read this post and understand it.
Photosynthesis takes place in green plants and its purpose is to make food.This process involves two step process, namely;
1-The light-dependant stage.
2-The light-independent stage or the dark stage.
In the light-dependant stage, light, most importantly from the sun is absorbed by the chlorophyll; a green cellulose in a plant's cell which converts this light energy into chemical energy.In this very first stage, this light-to-chemical energy is used in another subprocess called the Photolysis.In photolysis, again the very light-to-chemical energy is used to split the molecules of water into Hydrogen atoms and Oxygen molecules.This water is obtained from the ground and sucked in by roots.
For now, the light-dependant stage is complete and now you know why is it called the light-dependant stage because light is required in this process to decompose water.Now, comes the second stage; the light-independent stage.As from its name, we can conclude that the role of light is not required in this process.Here, just the carbon dioxide which is taken from the air in through the stomatal pores on the lower side of the leaves, the enzymes and the Hydrogen atoms will play a role.The Hydrogen atoms and carbon dioxide will react in the presence of an enzyme to form a glucose molecule, water, and Oxygen.
We know that glucose is the main constituent of the tree which is later changed into proteins by combining with some nitrates, or into more complex compounds like fats or into polysaccharides like cellulose to give a tree's trunk its hardness.
I have explained the process of Photosynthesis fair enough to get the real understanding of what makes most of the trees.But I must mention the equation of photosynthesis to make everything clear and to really prove that trees get their mass mostly from the air rather than the soil.
You can see that at first only two most important ingredients chemically react to form glucose, water, and Oxygen.But here is one thing you can observe is that water molecules are actually twice as much in number as of carbon dioxide and we all know that water comes from the soil, not from the air.So, does it not make my statement wrong which I have been repeating again and again throughout this post?Actually not.When we talk about mass, we really mean mass at the atomic level.
We take atomic mass to analyze things at the very smallest level.In this context, we know that water (H2O) has 12 molecules and the carbon dioxide has only 6 molecules in this process but when we talk about the molecular mass of these molecules respectively, we come to know that H20 has only the atomic mass of 18 while CO2 has the atomic mass of 44.Multiplying the number of molecules with their relative atomic mass gets this kind of result;
H2O = 12 x 18 = 216
CO2 = 6 x 44 = 264
Seeing the results, we can conclude that although water has more molecules involved in this process than that of carbon dioxide, still it does not add more mass to a tree than CO2.Thus, we can say it finally that trees get most of their mass from the air rather than the soil.
Photosynthesis takes place in green plants and its purpose is to make food.This process involves two step process, namely;
1-The light-dependant stage.
2-The light-independent stage or the dark stage.
In the light-dependant stage, light, most importantly from the sun is absorbed by the chlorophyll; a green cellulose in a plant's cell which converts this light energy into chemical energy.In this very first stage, this light-to-chemical energy is used in another subprocess called the Photolysis.In photolysis, again the very light-to-chemical energy is used to split the molecules of water into Hydrogen atoms and Oxygen molecules.This water is obtained from the ground and sucked in by roots.
For now, the light-dependant stage is complete and now you know why is it called the light-dependant stage because light is required in this process to decompose water.Now, comes the second stage; the light-independent stage.As from its name, we can conclude that the role of light is not required in this process.Here, just the carbon dioxide which is taken from the air in through the stomatal pores on the lower side of the leaves, the enzymes and the Hydrogen atoms will play a role.The Hydrogen atoms and carbon dioxide will react in the presence of an enzyme to form a glucose molecule, water, and Oxygen.
We know that glucose is the main constituent of the tree which is later changed into proteins by combining with some nitrates, or into more complex compounds like fats or into polysaccharides like cellulose to give a tree's trunk its hardness.
Conclusion
Anyhow, it is just very simple and foolish at the same time to think that trees fill up their trunks, their branches and twigs with soil and not really understanding HOW? and really not even do they think about it and neither recall what they had learned earlier in their school days; the Photosynthesis might be the answer.I have explained the process of Photosynthesis fair enough to get the real understanding of what makes most of the trees.But I must mention the equation of photosynthesis to make everything clear and to really prove that trees get their mass mostly from the air rather than the soil.
You can see that at first only two most important ingredients chemically react to form glucose, water, and Oxygen.But here is one thing you can observe is that water molecules are actually twice as much in number as of carbon dioxide and we all know that water comes from the soil, not from the air.So, does it not make my statement wrong which I have been repeating again and again throughout this post?Actually not.When we talk about mass, we really mean mass at the atomic level.
We take atomic mass to analyze things at the very smallest level.In this context, we know that water (H2O) has 12 molecules and the carbon dioxide has only 6 molecules in this process but when we talk about the molecular mass of these molecules respectively, we come to know that H20 has only the atomic mass of 18 while CO2 has the atomic mass of 44.Multiplying the number of molecules with their relative atomic mass gets this kind of result;
H2O = 12 x 18 = 216
CO2 = 6 x 44 = 264
Seeing the results, we can conclude that although water has more molecules involved in this process than that of carbon dioxide, still it does not add more mass to a tree than CO2.Thus, we can say it finally that trees get most of their mass from the air rather than the soil.
0 Comments