What makes grass green?
Posted by Erica Williams on Mon, Aug 30, 2010 @ 02:33 PM
Fourth grade science class was—let's just say it was a long, long, LONG time ago. I was talking with a landscaper friend of mine about the condition of one of his clients' lawn. The grass was brown and ugly. Thinking aloud, he was brainstorming reasons, why he why he thought it was so unhealthy and we came up with lots of reasons and elements that could turn the grass brown. Then as a question to himself, he muttered under his breath “I wonder what makes grass green?”
I didn’t answer him. He wasn’t really talking to me.
And the fact that I did'nt know the answer off the top of my head, gave me pause too.
That seemingly simple question stayed on my mind for about 2 or 3 days before I started to do a little research. My first and only resource I checked was my little sister, she’s in the 5th grade. (yeah, the theme music from the game show plays in my head too)
The first thing she said to me was “Do you know what chlorophyll and photosynthesis is?” "Well of course I do", I lied, "But why don’t you tell me what it is and I’ll tell you if you’re right” I had to try and save face. Once upon a time, way back when I knew what chlorophyll was so technically, I wasn’t lying. Here are the cliff notes of her mini lecture. "Chlorophyll does not absorb the green spectrum of light so thats reflected back to your eyes which gives grass the nice green color.Then there’s photosynthesis. Photosyntesis “is a process that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds using the energy of sunlight.
So there you have it folks! Combine chlorophyll with the process of photosynthesis and you get green grass. Now take this information and impress a kid! Just end the conversation before they ask you why the sky is blue! THAT deserves a separate blog post.
