Video narration
How does your houseplant get its food-does it pull it from the soil, or soak up the sun? Your plant by the window takes in water through its roots, but soil is not its food; it supplies water and minerals. Sunlight reaches the leaves, where chlorophyll captures its energy. Here is the turn: the plant does not absorb food from the sun. It uses sunlight as power to build food itself. Carbon dioxide enters through the leaves from the air. Water and carbon dioxide meet inside the plant, powered by sunlight, and become sugar. That sugar gives the houseplant energy and building material for new growth. Oxygen leaves as a byproduct and drifts back into the room. It makes its own food. That is photosynthesis: your houseplant uses sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into sugar, releasing oxygen.