Photosynthesis is the process by which plants, some bacteria, and some protistans use the energy from sunlight to produce sugar, whichcellular respiration converts into ATP, the "fuel" used by all living things. The conversion of unusable sunlight energy into usable chemical energy, is associated with the actions of the green pigment chlorophyll. Most of the time, the photosynthetic process uses water and releases the oxygen that we absolutely must have to stay alive. Oh yes, we need the food as well!
We can write the overall reaction of this process as:
Most of us don't speak chemicalese, so the above chemical equation translates as:
six molecules of water plus six molecules of carbon dioxide produce one molecule of sugar plus six molecules of oxygen
Diagram of a typical plant, showing the inputs and outputs of the photosynthetic process. Image from Purves et al., Life: The Science of Biology, 4th Edition, by Sinauer Associates (www.sinauer.com) and WH Freeman (www.whfreeman.com), used with permission.
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