Abstract: Light from the Sun is a full spectrum of different wavelengths of light. Scientists refer to this light as “white light”. When the wavelength of visible light changes, so does the color seen by the eye. The shortest wavelengths visible to the human eye are violet (400 nanometers). The longest wavelengths visible the human eye are red (700 nanometers). Each plant is affected differently by the changing wavelengths of light. The purpose of this experiment is to test the effects of different wavelengths on raphanus sativus (radish). The hypothesis is that wavelengths below 450 nanometers will increase raphanus sativus growth and wavelengths above 650 nanometers will decrease raphanus sativus growth. However, the data slightly supported that both wavelengths below 450 and wavelengths above 650 slightly increase raphanus sativus growth.
Introduction/Background: Plants use light to turn carbon dioxide into sugars necessary for growth, a process called photosynthesis. Sunlight is a full spectrum of different wave lengths of light. Seen through a prism, this spectrum turns into bands of color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.1 However, changing the wavelength of light may shorten this process even more.2 Many of the results from other experiments have shown that this differs from plant to plant.3 In a previous experiment, done by Hamaker K., results have shown that vines under green light have shown more growth than vines under “white light”.4 However, an experiment done by Morton J. L., lima beans actually grow the best in “white light” and the poorest in green light.5 The conclusion is that different wavelengths of light in the visible spectrum have varying effects on the growth of photosynthetic plants.6 The purpose of this experiment is to see if different wavelengths of light affect the growth of raphanus sativus.
Methods: The materials needed for this experiment are 3