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What Factors Affect the Rate of Photosynthesis in Living Leaves?

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What Factors Affect the Rate of Photosynthesis in living leaves?

Abstract:
In this lab, four different types of leaves were tested to see the rate at which each leaf photosynthesized. This lab demonstrates how plants store light, capture light, and use light as energy for reproduction and growth, by photosynthesis. The control in this experiment was spinach, which was tested before any of the other plants were. The other plants that were tested were English Ivy, C4 Plant, and a multicolored plant. Each type of leaf was tested in a sodium bicarbonate solution and a solution of distilled water. It will be shown in the discussion whether the hypothesis made was correct or incorrect. It will be shown in the discussion what could have …show more content…

Add one drop of a dilute liquid soap solution to each cup using a pipette. If there are bubbles present, make sure to get rid of them before continuing the experiment. The soap in this case is used to wet the hydrophobic surface of the leaf, allowing the solution to be drawn into the leaf and enabling the leaf disks to sink in to the fluid. 8. Use a hold puncher to cut 10 leaf disks for each cup. Avoid hold punching around the ribs of the leaf. 9. Draw the gases out of the spongy mesophyll tissue and infiltrate the leaves with the sodium bicarbonate solution. This should be done as follows: 10. Place 5 of the leaf disks into each syringe 11. Place the plunger back in to the syringe, without crushing the disks. Push in the plunger until only a small volume of air along with the leaf disks remain in the syringe 12. Put a small volume (around 5 cc) of sodium bicarbonate with the soap solution from the prepared cup into one syringe and a small volume of water with soap into the other syringe. 13. Tap each syringe. Assure that the disks are in the solution, after the plunger is inverted. Also, assure that there is no air remaining. Make sure no air remains. 14. At this point, a vacuum is to be created within the syringe to draw the air out of the tissue of the leaf disks. After this step, the experiment is really quite simple. 15. To create the vacuum, hold one finger over the narrow part of the

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