What is the difference between respiration and photosynthesis?
They are opposites. In photosynthesis, water molecules are split and the oxygen from the water is released to the atmosphere. The plant then splits carbon dioxide into C and O the plant then attaches the hydrogen from the water to the oxygen. From that the plant makes two things. First, it makes water. Second, through chlorophyll, the plant bonds the hydrogen to the oxygen AND then bonds the carbon back on which creates C6H12O6 or glucose and, it is in the glucose that sunlight energy is stored as chemical (or food) energy. In cellular respiration (CR), in the cytoplasm and the mitochondria, glucose is broken apart, the chemical energy that held it together is then used by the cell for the rephosporlation of ADP and P back into ATP. This breakdown of glucose occurs anaerobically in the cytoplasm by enzymes. However, a second step of CR also occurs in the mitochondria where oxygen (it came from the plant breaking down water) is used (therefore called aerobic respiration) to break apart
