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The Blur

Questions Thread

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how does a tree suck up water from the ground and raise it upwards ( sometimes hundreds of feet ) to the fruit and leaves without any moving parts ?

and why does water not continue to raise into the tree after it dies ?

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how does a tree suck up water from the ground and raise it upwards ( sometimes hundreds of feet ) to the fruit and leaves without any moving parts ?

and why does water not continue to raise into the tree after it dies ?

Water enters the roots of the tree via osmosis where it joins a long, unbroken chain from root to leaf/fruit. Meanwhile water is transpired from the leaf through the stomata, as this water is transpired the chain is pulled up the tree through the xylem vessels (a new vessel is produced every year - this is what forms the rings in a tree trunk).

Water stops raising up the tree once the tree is dead as there is no longer transpiration from the leaves and so no water is leaving the leaves, dragging more water up.

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Water enters the roots of the tree via osmosis where it joins a long, unbroken chain from root to leaf/fruit. Meanwhile water is transpired from the leaf through the stomata, as this water is transpired the chain is pulled up the tree through the xylem vessels (a new vessel is produced every year - this is what forms the rings in a tree trunk).

Water stops raising up the tree once the tree is dead as there is no longer transpiration from the leaves and so no water is leaving the leaves, dragging more water up.

i still can't understand how the water is "pulled up" ,

the leaves of a deciduous tree fall off in the autumn , so what pulls up the water to restart the process

can this effect be recreated mechanically or is it solely a biological process ?

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i still can't understand how the water is "pulled up" ,

the leaves of a deciduous tree fall off in the autumn , so what pulls up the water to restart the process

can this effect be recreated mechanically or is it solely a biological process ?

all the water molecules are linked by hydrogen bonds (Intermolecular attractions between hydrogen and one of the three most electronegative element, Fluorine, Nitrogen or Oxygen - in this case oxygen) which individually are quite weak (although the strongest of the intermolecular forces - dipole-dipole is weaker and van der waals weaker still) together they are quite strong. As the water is transpired the rest of the water is dragged up due to the number of hydrogen bonds.

The water molecules also form hydrogen bonds with the cellulose cell walls of the cells forming the xylem, making it very difficult for the chain of water to drop back down the plant.

As for how it restarts in deciduous trees i'm unsure but i would think that the chain is already there due to bonding with the walls of the xylem and so all it requires is for, as the leaves grow again the water moving into the leaves due to a water potential gradient.

I would imagine it could be reproduced mechanically as it is a relatively simple process but i've never encountered any evidence to suggest it could or couldn't be done.

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all the water molecules are linked by hydrogen bonds (Intermolecular attractions between hydrogen and one of the three most electronegative element, Fluorine, Nitrogen or Oxygen - in this case oxygen) which individually are quite weak (although the strongest of the intermolecular forces - dipole-dipole is weaker and van der waals weaker still) together they are quite strong. As the water is transpired the rest of the water is dragged up due to the number of hydrogen bonds.

The water molecules also form hydrogen bonds with the cellulose cell walls of the cells forming the xylem, making it very difficult for the chain of water to drop back down the plant.

As for how it restarts in deciduous trees i'm unsure but i would think that the chain is already there due to bonding with the walls of the xylem and so all it requires is for, as the leaves grow again the water moving into the leaves due to a water potential gradient.

I would imagine it could be reproduced mechanically as it is a relatively simple process but i've never encountered any evidence to suggest it could or couldn't be done.

thanks :thumbup:

and i'd like to say it's all clear to me now but in reality it's not :)

and i wonder why there isn't ample evidence of enormous amounts of water being raised by in such a way , if it's quite a simple process ,

surely there is enormous energy saving potential here for irrigation etc without the need for expensive pumping etc

but thanks again anyway :thumbup:

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if cows only eat grass , is everything that makes up a cow , (ie. bone , leather , horn , meat , milk , fat etc etc ), contained in the nutrients derived from grass ?

in other words could it ever be possible in the future to make all these things

directly from grass ( and sunlight and water of course) ?

Edited by Zingari
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Guest BlueBrett

Not quite so thought provoking as some of these but still something that perplexes me on a daily basis...How do you post images on foxestalk?!

People have tried to explain it before but I still always **** it up so whoever takes up the mantle this time please imagine you are talking to a child of no more than 4 years old...not one with learning difficulties or anything but one that is closer to the bottom of his class than the top, has a short attention span and maybe still tries to write from right to left sometimes.

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Not quite so thought provoking as some of these but still something that perplexes me on a daily basis...How do you post images on foxestalk?!

People have tried to explain it before but I still always **** it up so whoever takes up the mantle this time please imagine you are talking to a child of no more than 4 years old...not one with learning difficulties or anything but one that is closer to the bottom of his class than the top, has a short attention span and maybe still tries to write from right to left sometimes.

Get link... e.g. http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m3/Fiz-04/beck-lcfc2.jpg

Click the picture.png

Then paste in the first link into the pop up box and hey presto

beck-lcfc2.jpg

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if cows only eat grass , is everything that makes up a cow , (ie. bone , leather , horn , meat , milk , fat etc etc ), contained in the nutrients derived from grass ?

in other words could it ever be possible in the future to make all these things

directly from grass ( and sunlight and water of course) ?

interesting question.

animals use excess energy from food to grow so the bone, leather, fat etc. you mentioned is, in a way, made from grass.

Not all of the grass can be used, cellulose can only be broken down by a specific enzyme, not present in most creatures (in fact i think it's only in a couple of types of bacteria) but the starch, glucose, proteins, lipids etc, can be broken down and are used to make new organelles in mitosis.

So, in theory, with energy these could be used to make new cells and so tissues, organs etc. producing the meat, bone, leather and horn and other parts of the cow.

I doubt we could make all those straight from grass as there would be no cells containing cow dna to replicate and form the skin, the muscles, the bones and horn, not to mention organs - they can be of use as well.

However it may be possible, if you isolate skin cells, muscle cells, etc. to grow new tissues (the way they do with stem cells and skin grafts, new pancreas tissue etc. in medicine nowdays) and produce leather, meat etc.

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Guest BlueBrett
Take out one of the http://

yeh I realised I cocked that up but then when I took it out it said I wasnt allowed to post my image on this board :(

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BB - Best way is save the pic to your pc, then go to Tinypic and hit browse and put the pic on there. Then press upload. When it has uploaded there will be 4 yellow lines of text. Copy the second box of text and paste it on here.

Hey presto :

1z65he8.gif

Edited by El Empty
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