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Who First Discovered How Plants Transport Water From Their Roots To Their Leaves?

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Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered

How do people know that for certain ? I'm doing a science fair project so please answer quickley ! Do you have evidence or do people just think that ?

Kath Senior Profile
Kath Senior answered
People have always known that plants need water to grow and stay healthy but the way they transport water was actually discovered by an English vicar called Stephen Hales. He was born in 1677 and lived until 1761. He was the first person to measure transpiration in a plant. He also grew a plant in a closed container and measured the volume of air above the surface of the water. He saw that it went down by about 14% and concluded that the plant was using up part of the air.

His other experiments showed that the sap in plant stems flows upwards, against gravity and he published his work in 1727. Hales' observations were interesting in themselves but, now that we can look back with a historical perspective, we can see that they were important stepping stones in the scientific process that lead to our current understanding of plant physiology and biochemistry.

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