Components

• Exploring Creation states that there are four components necessary for photosynthesis: light, water, carbon dioxide and chlorophyll. To create food for itself, the plant must have energy, and this energy is provided by light. The carbon dioxide and water are the ingredients that leaves combine to make food. Finally, chlorophyll is the chemical that leaves use to absorb light. It is also responsible for the green color in leaves. If a leaf is green, you know chlorophyll is present and that the leaf can perform photosynthesis. If a leaf is not green (for example, in the fall when leaves change colors), the leaf is not able to do photosynthesis.
  
  

Process

• According to Exploring Creation, photosynthesis is fueled by energy that comes from light. With this energy, the cells in the leaves put together carbon dioxide and water to make sugar and oxygen. On a molecular level, Estrella College reports that photosynthesis takes six molecules of water and six molecules of carbon dioxide and converts them into one molecule of sugar and six molecules of oxygen. At night when there is no light, photosynthesis is not possible, so plants are not able to make sugar or oxygen.
  
  

Results

• Basically, plants derive their food from photosynthesis, some of which is used up by the leaves and some of which is sent down to the plant's roots and stems. However, not all of the sugar is immediately used. Exploring Creation explains that plants store their food in different ways to be used at a later time. Humans often eat these stored sugars. For example, a carrot is actually stored-up sugars that a plant has produced through photosynthesis.
  
  

Considerations

• Photosynthesis is vital for life on Earth. It is responsible for a producing a large portion of the oxygen that we need to breath. In addition, photosynthesis uses up carbon dioxide, the chemical that humans breathe out. Without photosynthesis, Earth would not be habitable. Some of the reasons behind the campaign for a greener Earth and the concern over deforestation are the need for the production of oxygen, the maintenance of the atmosphere, and the removal of pollutants in the air.
  
  

Misconception

• Concern about deforestation has led many people to believe that that process of photosynthesis in plants is the primary source of oxygen. Although one tree can produce thousands of pounds of oxygen every year (each human breathes about 730 pounds of oxygen a year), plants are not the primary way that oxygen is produced on Earth. Exploring Creation explains that more than half the oxygen breathed by humans is produced by microscopic creatures that live underwater. The amazing fact is that these organisms can actually perform photosynthesis in the water, taking in carbon dioxide and water to produce sugars and oxygen.