Deriving the Photosynthetic Equation

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Deriving the Photosynthetic Equation

• Who contributed to the development of our
  understanding of this process..

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Jean-Baptiste van Helmont
Showed that the weight gain in plants was because
of the addition of water while it was growing
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Joseph Priestly
Plants produce oxygen. The good air
4
Jan Ingenhousz
Light is essential for photosynthesis !
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Theodore Engleman
He determined that plants produce the greatest
amounts of oxygen while in the presence of violet
and red wavelengths of light
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C.B. Van Neil
He discovered that the source of oxygen in
photosynthesis was from the water. Not the CO2
gas
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Ruben Kamen
They proved that van Niels hypothesis was
correct using radioactive tags The oxygen gas
produced was in fact from the water input into
the plant
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Overall Equation for Photosynthesis

• 6 CO2 6 H2O (REACTANTS)
• sunlight
• Red light violet light
• 6 O2 C6H12O6 (PRODUCTS)