Physics has the conservation of mass right? … And … Things like trees sit in the ground. Where do they get the mass to grow tall? How do they move it up their trunk? How do really old trees get more dirt when they make it into trunks?
In: Biology
Trees are made of carbon and they get essentially all of this carbon (C) from the air they breathe in and then they breathe out oxygen (O) which is how we breathe.
This might seem odd, but we actually do the essentially the same but in reverse. If you have ever heard that you breathe in O and breathe out carbon dioxide (CO2). This is a mix of C and O and actually comes from the food you break down and the fats that you burn. So trees gain mass from breathing in C in the same way that we lose it as we breathe out C, humans have almost the same reactions as plants but in reverse.
As to how they move their mass around, trees mostly breath through their green leaves and then the carbon is transported around the tree through different cells. This is why trees don’t grow in winter when they lose their leaves, but spark up again in spring.
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