My teacher said this is a very hard question, but I'm trying to make an attempts. Can you guide me?
A biologist places a plant in a closed chamber. A sensor in the chamber maintains the carbon dioxide level at the normal atmospheric concentration of 0.03%. Another sensor allows the biologist to measure the amount of oxygen produced by the plant over time. If the plant produces 0.001 mole of oxygen in an hour, how much Carbon dioxide had to be added to the chamber during that hour to maintain the atmospheric concentration of 0.03%?
AP bio - bobpursley, Saturday, September 12, 2009 at 2:48pm
look at the balanced chemical reaction...
6CO2+ 6H2O >>6 O2 + C6H12O6
So for each mole of oxygen produced, one mole of carbon dioxide was used.
AP bio - muffy, Saturday, September 12, 2009 at 3:02pm
Thanks, but I'm still really confused (that seems to be my mantra lately). I haven't had chemistry for 2 years and I'm at a loss, where to next?
AP bio - muffy - still stumped, Saturday, September 12, 2009 at 7:31pm
Help! I'm not sure where you got that equation from.
That equation is the photosynthesis equation.
so if .001 mole of O2 is oxygen/hr is being used, .001 mole of CO2 has to be pumped in to maintain the concentration.
I can help you with this question! To answer it, you'll first need to understand the concept of balanced chemical equations. In this case, the equation represents the process of photosynthesis, where plants convert carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and glucose.
The equation is: 6CO2 + 6H2O -> 6O2 + C6H12O6
From this equation, we can see that for every 6 moles of carbon dioxide used, 6 moles of oxygen are produced. Therefore, for each mole of oxygen produced, one mole of carbon dioxide is used.
Now, let's go back to the question. The plant produces 0.001 mole of oxygen in one hour. Since we know that for each mole of oxygen produced, one mole of carbon dioxide is used, we can conclude that 0.001 mole of carbon dioxide was used by the plant in that same hour.
However, the question asks how much carbon dioxide had to be added to the chamber to maintain the atmospheric concentration of 0.03%. This means that the CO2 consumed by the plant needs to be replenished.
To find the amount of CO2 that needs to be added, we can use the fact that the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is 0.03%. This percentage corresponds to 0.03 moles of CO2 in a total of 100 moles of air.
Since we know that 0.001 mole of CO2 was used by the plant, we can calculate the amount that needs to be replenished by subtracting it from the total atmospheric concentration: 0.03 moles - 0.001 moles = 0.029 moles.
Therefore, 0.029 moles of carbon dioxide needs to be added to the chamber during that hour to maintain the atmospheric concentration of 0.03%.