Determining the role of respiration and photosynthesis in spinach (spinacia oleracea) leaves under varying light conditions Introduction: Photosynthesis is the process of taking CO2, water and light energy and turning it into glucose and oxygen. The chemical formula is 6CO2 + 6H2O + light energy = C6H12O6 + 6O2 and this is a light dependent reaction which occurs in the chloroplast of plants. The glucose will be used in cellular respiration for energy and some of the oxygen will exit the plant through the stomata to provide the world with air to breath (Simms, 2017). Cellular respiration is the next step which is a light independent reaction which takes the glucose and some oxygen from photosynthesis and produces CO2 and H2O. The balance of …show more content…
The first control variable was time and the time was kept at a constant throughout the three experiments so that there would be no flaws in data. If time would be a dependent variable the data would be different than that of which was collected. The second constant of the experiment was spinach, in each of the experiment’s there was 5 pieces of spinach that was put into the reservoir(probe). The last control variable for the three experiments was the placement of the probes, whether the probe was in the light or in the dark. (Simms, 2017). Spinach leaves under white light should produce more O2 because photosynthesis is a light driven process. The second experiment was White Light versus Blue Light which was conducted the same way as the first experiment. By putting 5 pieces of spinach into a probe and placed on a light in which it sat on the light for 600 seconds while the O2 and CO2 sensor read what the spinach was giving off. (Simms, 2017). The wavelengths that are present in the blue light, are seen on a red through purple spectrum in which blue is found at 475 nm. These colors that are represented in wavelengths are shown as different colors. Each color has a specific number in nanometers in which they become visible to the human eye. (Simms,