Optoelectronics, Optics, Lights and Lasers
May 21, 2012, 12:25:15 PM *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News:
 
   Home   Help Search Login Register  
Pages: [1]
  Print  
Author Topic: If plants absorb sunlight why don’t they produce a large amount of heat?  (Read 313 times)
William
Newbie
*
Posts: 29


View Profile
« on: June 22, 2011, 10:40:47 PM »

Please help!
Logged
Joseph
Newbie
*
Posts: 14


View Profile
« Reply #1 on: June 22, 2011, 11:58:45 PM »

1) they USE the energy to make oxygen and glucose
2) they grow
3) the amount of energy involved isn't high
Logged
ScottyHeritage
Newbie
*
Posts: 1


View Profile
« Reply #2 on: June 23, 2011, 10:18:34 AM »

They don't acually absorb sunlight, it's the energy from the sun and they use it as their own energy (not to sure on the whole photosynthesis thing) but I know they don't absorb heat
Logged
itsamini1
Newbie
*
Posts: 1


View Profile
« Reply #3 on: June 24, 2011, 07:04:29 AM »

they actually do.  If you have ever seen when workers are cutting trees and putting them through a chipper you will notice steam will rise and the pile of wood chips is so hot it can actually burn your skin.
Logged
adids
Newbie
*
Posts: 1


View Profile
« Reply #4 on: June 24, 2011, 07:27:22 AM »

They don't produce a large amount of heat, but they do produce heat in the microscopic level (the molecular level).

I don't know how much you might have studied about Photosynthesis, but in very short light is absorbed by chlorophyll molecules to make electrons ''excited'' to power many multi-staged reactions to end up with Glucose. Now, as I said, multi-staged, the energy transfer from light absorption to creation of starch from glucose doesn't take place with absolute efficiency, energy is lost in-between, much like unused electricity. This unused energy changes is given off as heat. But also take this into account, plants are evolution-wise designed to absorb light and make food out of it. So  you have to imagine that the efficiency is somewhat OK.

I read somewhere in my biology books that the energy conversion between sunlight and producers (plants) is somewhere in-between 5% to 35% of all light that falls on green plants. Not sure about the exact figure but that's the range.  The rest 70+ % of sunlight is reflected off or wasted as heat.
Logged
science_teacher
Newbie
*
Posts: 11


View Profile
« Reply #5 on: June 24, 2011, 08:38:39 AM »

The plants absorb light and change it to chemical energy, not thermal.
Energy is stored in chemical bonds, we obtain this energy by eating the food the plants produce.
In photosynthesis the sun light is needed to combine the water and carbon dioxide to make the glucose
Oxygen is released as a byproduct, which we need also.
Plants use some of the energy to grow and reproduce
Logged
Pages: [1]
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.13 | SMF © 2006-2011, Simple Machines LLC | Privacy Policy Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!