4 ms·
> Combustion is in some sense the opposite of photosynthesis, an endothermic reaction which takes in light, water, and carbon dioxide and produces hydrocarbons.
by shmageggy 10y ago
> Combustion is in some sense the opposite of photosynthesis, an endothermic reaction which takes in light, water, and carbon dioxide and produces hydrocarbons.
This is a neat idea that I hadn't heard before!
- bcbrown 10y agoI've heard it said that Buckminster Fuller described fire as "sunlight unwinding from tree trunks", which struck me as a very poetic way to phrase it.
- photogrammetry 10y agoQuite beautiful. Thank you for the quote.
- rcthompson 10y agoThe other interesting aspect is that it's more or less the same overall reaction that we perform in our cells to derive energy from organic materials (though the mechanism is very different). I think this is partly why we say things like "exercise burns fat".
- JoachimS 10y agoFeynmann had some really nice description of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1pIYI5JQLE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1pIYI5JQLE
- myself248 10y agoThat's interesting, I've always described metabolism and combustion as the opposite of photosynthesis. You even get back the water that the plant consumed, in the form of steam or condensation dripping out the car's tailpipe, or desert rodents that don't need to drink liquid water because they're so good at keeping the water they metabolize from food! We just use the atmosphere as a temporary place to store the oxygen, and keep it diluted with enough nitrogen that things don't immediately unphotosynthesize themselves. ;)