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Light Wavelength Lab Report

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In the effect of light wavelength experiment, the action spectrum is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of various wavelengths of light on photosynthesis. To observe these effects of the wavelengths the wavelength pigments red, blue, green, white light, and no light are used.
In the experiment, spinach leave disks were aspirated in a sodium bicarbonate solution in order to remove all internal gases and make the disks sink to the bottom of a beaker. Each beaker full of 10 spinach disks was placed into a different box with a different colored light source. The purpose of this was to observe which wavelengths had an effect on photosynthesis by seeing which beaker had floating spinach disks. If a spinach disk floated to the top of the beaker this would mean that the intercellular space of the leaf would fill with oxygen, concluding that it was undergoing photosynthesis. The different number of disks that floated to the top however, determines how great of an effect the certain wavelength had on the leaves …show more content…

The beaker in white light would be the positive control since white light contains all pigments of the visible spectrum, so it will definitely make leaves float to the top as it promotes photosynthesis. The beaker in no light serves as the negative control since no wavelengths are being used and no photosynthesis will occur with the absence of photon excitement from a light source. The results from the experiment reflected this as seen in the chart below, where white light had the most floating disks in a 30 minutes time period, and the dark had no floating disks. As for the other wavelengths of light, the red and blue light had the most floating leaf disks after white light and the green had no floating disks similar to the beaker in no light. The green light had no effect on the leaf disks because the light was simply reflected, since the chlorophyll cant absorb

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