We do. The sun’s energy is locked in plants via photosynthesis, which is then processed by herbivores and passed further down the food chain. That energy exists in form of chemical compounds which are then broken down to release it during digestion.
In terms of numbers tho, it’s probably a negligible fraction of the Earth’s mass
ccunning@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I thought plant biomass was obtained from the air (CO2/carbon sequestration?) and water.
NoIWontPickAName@kbin.earth 6 months ago
You need photosynthesis to do that
ccunning@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Sure, but the implication was that plant mass comes from the sun. Maybe some negligible fraction of percent is but nowhere near the majority.
The sun’s energy also goes into heat all over the planet. I’m just trying to understand how any of that energy might manifest as mass in a tangible way.
Or maybe it’s just the case that the amount of energy needed to create mass is astronomically minuscule.
🤔 I suppose that’s the principle behind atomic bombs 🤔
tobogganablaze@lemmus.org 6 months ago
It would actually an astronomically large amount. An atomic bomb will turn a very tiny amount of mass into a tremendous amount of energy. And that’s with a nuclear process that is way more efficent then a chemical one like photosynthesis.
But from pure physics standpoint a carbon atom and an O2 molecule will have a teeny-tiny bit less mass then an CO2 molecule (which is why combining or burning them together will release some energy). So doing the reverse and splitting up a CO2 molecule into it’s parts will generate a little bit of mass.