🍃 "So… everything is made of atoms, right?"
That's the first thing. My teacher said — everything is made up of tiny particles called atoms.
I used to imagine atoms as dots, floating around. But they're not just floating — they connect. They snap together like magnets, forming stuff called molecules.
So like, H₂O is two hydrogens and one oxygen. That's water.
And CO₂ — carbon dioxide — is one carbon, two oxygens.
Huh. Simple.
Now… what's inside a plant?
Atoms. Lots of molecules. Cells made of molecules. Okay. Got it.
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🌞 "Plants don't eat like animals… so how do they get energy?"
I eat food. The food gives me energy. Obvious.
But plants? They don't eat. They don't have mouths. No burgers for them.
So how do they stay alive?
Oh right — photosynthesis.(A process in which plants make food with the help of sunlight)
That's where plants use sunlight to make food.
....
Sunlight + CO₂ + Water → Glucose + Oxygen
Glucose is sugar. Plants make sugar from air and water using sunlight.
That's kind of insane when you really think about it.
So okay — they make glucose.
But wait…
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⚡ "Making food isn't enough. They have to break it too?"
Yup. Here's the twist: just having glucose doesn't mean the plant has energy.
Same for me. I can eat, but my body still needs to digest and break it down to release the energy inside.
That's what respiration is.
> Respiration is the process where glucose is broken down inside the plant to release energy.
It's not the same as photosynthesis — it's like the opposite.
Photosynthesis builds glucose.
Respiration burns it.
Weird. So even plants have to "burn fuel" inside. Just quietly.
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🔥 "But where does the energy go? Into what?"
The energy that comes out… doesn't just float around.
It's caught and stored in a molecule called ATP —( Adenosine Triphosphate.)
I'll never remember the full name. But I'll remember what it does:
> ATP is like the battery for the cell.
No ATP = no movement, no growth, no anything.
Every little thing a plant cell does — growing roots, healing wounds, opening its pores — needs ATP.
So plants make food, but then they have to burn that food to make ATP.
Kind of like charging their own internal battery.
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🧪 "Alright… so how exactly do they break down glucose?"
Here's the cool part — plants do it just like us.
They have tiny structures inside their cells called mitochondria — the same organelle we have.
Those are the powerhouses. That's where respiration happens.
The glucose gets sent there… and then…
BOOM. It gets broken down.
But it's not one big explosion. It's steps. Tiny, careful steps.
Let's list them.
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🧬 .🍬 First: What are we trying to do here?
Okay. The plant made glucose (C₆H₁₂O₆) using sunlight.
But that glucose isn't energy yet. It's like a locked battery.
So now… the plant wants to break down that glucose — piece by piece — and suck the energy out of it to make ATP.
That's what respiration is.
And there are three main steps to this "sugar breakdown" — not random, but like a recipe:
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🥇 Step 1: Glycolysis
(Glyco = sugar, Lysis = breaking)
🧪 Happens in: cytoplasm (the goo inside the cell)
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Okay, what happens here?
Imagine glucose is a chain of 6 carbon atoms.
Like this:
[C]-[C]-[C]-[C]-[C]-[C]
Now, glycolysis cuts that 6-carbon glucose into two 3-carbon pieces.
These are called pyruvate.
So:
> One Glucose → Two Pyruvate
And in the process… a tiny bit of energy is released.
ENOUGH MY HEAD HURTS .....LET'S REVISE
....
🍚 First things first: What is food, really?
Back home, food means rice, bread, butter, beans
But for a plant, food is not something it plucks and eats. It makes its own food.
Using what?
Sunlight
Water
Carbon dioxide (from the air) air has a gas called carbon dioxide in it .
This is called photosynthesis, and it creates a sugar called glucose. I picture it like this small, sweet ball of energy.
> "So a plant makes glucose. But… making food isn't enough, right? I make chicken, but I still need to eat it to get strength."
Exactly.
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🔥 Now comes Respiration
This is where the magic happens.
Plants break down that glucose to get energy out of it.
Just like when I chew my food and digest it, a plant has its own way of "chewing" its sugar. It doesn't have a mouth. It does this inside its cells.
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🧪 What is a cell?
Okay, slow down.
A cell is like a tiny room — a box so small I can't even see it with my eyes.
A plant is made up of millions of such cells.(Even we humans are too made up of cells )
Each cell has tiny machines inside it.
Think of them like the different parts of a village:
One machine makes food (like a kitchen)
Another burns the food to give power (like a stove)
Another throws out the trash
The one we care about today is the stove. The thing that burns food and gives energy. That's called respiration.
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💡 What's the very first step of respiration?
Here it is. The simplest part. The only part I want to remember today:
It's called glycolysis.
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🪓 Think of glucose like a log of wood
Glucose is like a thick piece of firewood — long, strong, made of 6 parts (carbons).
Just like I can't fit a full log into a village stove, the cell says:
> "Let's cut it in half first."
So that's what glycolysis does. It cuts the 6-carbon glucose into two 3-carbon pieces.
These pieces are called pyruvate.
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🔨 Glycolysis = First Chop
> "So I imagine the cell taking a sugar log and splitting it once."
[CHOP!]
And now it has two smaller pieces it can carry.
That's it.
No oxygen needed yet. No fire. Just preparation.
And in the process of cutting, the cell gets a little energy — like two sparks.
So glycolysis happens in respiration and it's the first step .(It happens in the cytoplasm of the cell and does not require oxygen unlike photosynthesis)
So PHOTOSYNTHESIS ==FOOD(GLUCOSE)....THEN ....FOOD ———> ENERGY (GLUCOSE)...BY RESPIRATION...