Introduction Cellular respiration is the process by which cells obtain energy from the breakdown of glucose and oxygen into ATP, the cell’s main form of energy, and carbon dioxide and water. The overall equation for respiration is: C6H12O6 + O2 → CO2 + H2O + Energy Respiration that results in the complete oxidation of glucose into carbon dioxide and water occurs in three steps. Respiration begins with glycolysis, which is an anaerobic process that occurs in the cytosol of the cell that ends with the formation of pyruvate from glucose in the absence of oxygen (Everet et al 2013). In the presence of oxygen, glycolysis is followed by the citric acid cycle and the electron transport chain, both of which take place in the mitochondria (Everet …show more content…
The cucumber catalase reacted much slower than the potato catalase, and this may be due to the increased water content of cucumber versus potato. A preliminary trial with the cucumber using only the watery flesh did not react at all with the hydrogen peroxide. The trial was then repeated using some of the skin of the cucumber, which did cause the reaction to occur, albeit much slower than the potato catalase. It is worth noting that the sample size is very small. This is because of the amount of time it took for the cucumber catalase to react with the hydrogen peroxide. Though the sample size is small, the results should not be discounted, as according to de Winter (2013), T-Tests with sample sizes as small as 2 should pose no principle objections, especially when the differences between the two species being tested are expected to be large (such as the large discrepancy between the reaction times of the potato and cucumber catalases observed in this experiment). Therefore, although a larger sample size is preferred over a smaller, the results of the T-Test are valid (de Winter 2013). Repeated trials are encouraged to increase credibility of the