Labs / Biology
Photosynthesis
Sunlight and CO₂ pour into a chloroplast, where they are woven into glucose and puffs of O₂ float away. Slide the light and CO₂ levels up and down, and watch the oxygen rate speed up — until it stalls on whichever ingredient is running short.
O₂ 0.0 µmol/slimiting —glucose 0
What to try
- With CO₂ low, keep cranking up the light. Why does the O₂ rate stop climbing?
- When the readout says the reaction is "light" limited, does adding more CO₂ do anything?
- Can you find a setting where neither factor is limiting — where the rate is "saturated"?
- Drag the sun to the far corner. Does moving the light source change how fast glucose piles up?
- Starting from deep shade, which raises the O₂ rate faster: a little more light, or a lot more CO₂?