Chapter 2

Question 1

Why is a rock not food? Or a Cessna 150?

Answer 1

Do not provide nutritional needs

Question 2

So, exactly what IS food?

Answer 2

any material substance that contains nutritional resources for the body

Question 3

Plants and photosynthetic plankton produce chains of carbon. Where does the carbon come from

Answer 3

CO2 atmosphere

Question 4

What is the first trick in making food, and what is the biochemical operation that does it?

Answer 4

Snapping Carbon Atoms Together , photosynthesis

Question 5

What is the general reaction equation for photosynthesis?

Answer 5

Co2 + h2o+ light reorganize to make fixed carbon + o2

Carbon dioxide plus water plus sunlight reorganize to make fixed carbon (chains of carbon) and molecular oxygen.

Question 6

Photosynthesis consumes three different environmental resources. What are they and where does the plant get them from?

Answer 6

Carbon Dioxide Gas from the atmosphere
H2o from roots water
Light from the sun

Question 7

What good are sugar molecules?

Answer 7

they are good at storing chemical energy for moderate amounts of time

Question 8

Why do starchy foods such as bread, rice, and potatoes taste so good?

Answer 8

starch is very easy to digest rapidly available to any living thing for energy extraction.

Question 9

What are two examples of polymers made out of glucose?

Answer 9

Starch

Cellulose

Question 10

What is cellulose, and how do plants put it to use?

Answer 10

surplus glucose molecules, very robust
structural properties

Plants use cellulose to
make structurally strong
cell walls around newly-
synthesized cells


Question 11

Why does wood burn?

Answer 11

wood is made of cellulose, and cellulose is made of glucose, and glucose stores chemical energy Fire represents the rapid release of the chemical energy that is stored in cellulose.

Question 12

If wood is made from glucose, why don’t we eat the wood as food?

Answer 12

It is hard to digest. Some animals can do it by using interesting biochemical tricks

Question 13

How does biosynthesis make an amino acid out of a short carbon chain?

Answer 13

replace one carbon atom in propane with a nitrogen atom; and then add a couple of oxygen atoms,

Question 14

How do plants get the nitrogen to make amino acids?

Answer 14

dissolved salt from the soil

Question 15

What is a salt?

Answer 15

organization of atoms held together by opposing electrical charges