Does this seem like a strange question? It could be if you don't really think about it, but, could we survive without light? Food: Light is the sole source of food generation for all living organisms on the earth. Except for a few bacteria almost all living beings depend on light for their food and energy. Plants and other autotrophs synthesize their own food materials by use of light. The light converts to reserve energy in the form of food by a process known a photosynthesis. From these plants animals get the required food materials and the required energy for living. So plants depend on sunlight for their own food and animals depend on plants. Thus all the living beings are dependent on light for food. For Vitamin D synthesis: Vitamin-D is a type of vitamin which does need to be supplied from an outside source. When light falls on the skin, a hormone below the skin converts to vitamin-D. So if some one stays away from sunlight for long, he tends to develop vitamin-D deficiency. Vision: All animals, birds are able to see objects around them due to having eyes. But without light these eyes might be absolutely of no use . Because of light, the eyes can receive the image of the objects and send the information to the brain. From this visual information we comprehend the objects. Hence we can notice that in darkness we could see nothing. So light makes us able to see objects around. This whole world looks beautiful due to colors. But in darkness we see no colors. This is because all the colors in this world are possible only due to light. The light has many spectra. Each spectra has a color and these are broadly referred as ROYGBIV. Maintenance of temperature: Light is a form of energy. And sunlight gives earth a huge amount of energy by which the temperature on the earth is maintained such that life can exist. If you think why? just imagine those areas of earth without proper light in a year. Those areas are very cold and even heavy snowfall occurs. If the sunlight is absent, the temperature of the earth can drop drastically such that all the water on the earth freezes. If this happened we would need extra technology to warm up water. Drying and evaporation: Sunlight helps in drying of soil, forests, air and rocky surfaces due to its ability to heat up matter. Also it helps water evaporate from oceans and water ponds. This drying is helpful in two ways to life on earth like a) Water cycle: The water cycle is a way by which fresh water on the earth surface is kept recycled for drinking and irrigation. The water from land evaporates to form clouds. These clouds again cause rainfall so as to return the fresh water to the earth surface. So due to rains there is fresh water to drink and also use for irrigation. Without water cycle, all the water on the earth would remain in the ocean so that no water is available to drink. Spectroscopy: Light is used for analysis of compounds by spectrophotometry. There are many forms of spectroscopy which vary based on the spectra and wavelength of light used. Using light helps us find more life on other planets... Have a great vacation! Don't forget how much you owe to life, because after thinking about it, if we didn't have life we might be bored to death.
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Mrs. TaylorI love science! Everything about the world is interesting and never boring. I love to study plants, animals, insects, and people. My favorite subjects are my students who are the most unique organisms on the planet! Categories |