Photosynthesis Lab

2. From the data set 1 on the graph, 50 percent of the leaf disks, or 5 leaf disks, were floating at eight minutes.

3. In the procedure, a vacuum is used to remove trapped air from the leaf disk and infiltrate it with a sodium bicarbonate solution, which serves as a source of carbon dioxide for photosynthesis. As the leaf is has trapped air removed and is infiltrated with this solution, the overall density of the leaf increases, which causes the leafs to sink.

4. The direct responding variable that was tested was the number of floating disks that floated to the top of the solution over time intervals of one minute. Through the results obtained, it can be inferred that the number of floating disks are correlated to the amount of oxygen that is produced as a result of photosynthesis.

5. Through the infiltration procedure, the gases were displaced from the leaf (including carbon dioxide, which is needed for photosynthesis), since almost all the air is replaced with the sodium bicarbonate solution. Thus, the leaves sat at the bottom of the beaker