Can someone explain to me the process of cellular respiration in simple terms, and how exactly it is the opposite of photosynthesis? Also this is a bad question but when plants photosynthesise glucose, do the glucose molecules then go through cellular respiration?
Ok, to start off: cellular respiration is the process by which cells break down sugars to create useable energy sources. It takes place in the mitochondria (hence them sometimes being referred to as the 'powerhouse' of the cell) and needs oxygen to occur.
Represented as an equation, cellular respiration looks like this:
C6H12O6 + 6O2 -> 6O2 + 6CO2 + Energy (ATP)
This can be resented in a worded equation as:
Glucose + Water -> Oxygen + Carbon Dioxide + Energy (in the form of ATP)
ATP or adenosine
triphosphate has three phosphate groups attached and when it releases one, it also releases energy and the remaining molecule is now called ADP or adenosine
diphosphate.
For your second question (cellular respiration = photosynthesis?) my answer is that they are both the same on a chemical level, and are simply reversed ( as photosynthesis is represented as: 6O2 + 6CO2 ----> (using sunlight energy) C6H12O6 + 6O2). also photosynthesis are also rather opposite in that they occur in different organelles (photosynthesis occurs in the chloroplasts), a catalyst is needed for photosynthesis (chlorophyll) but not for cellular respiration, photosynthesis is anabolic, whereas cellular respiration is catabolic, they (as already shown in the chemical equations) do opposite things with oxygen and carbon dioxide; photosynthesis turns carbon dioxide into oxygen and cellular respiration turns oxygen into carbon dioxide.
So theoretically, if we put an organism which uses cellular respiration (all animal cells do) into a sealed, glass jar with a plant that photosynthesises (most do, although onion, for example, doesn't) then they could actually live together if also equipped with water sunlight food, ect. how cool is that?!
However, they are not exactly opposite, because although they are reversed chemical equations, they are not reversed processes (for example, at no point does cellular respiration require sunlight for an energy source).
And for your third question, the glucose produced by photosynthesis is sometimes used for cellular respiration, although it may also be converted to sucrose and then transported around the plant for other uses, i.e. sweetening the fruit of the plant or it may be stored as starch for later needs (including cellular respiration)
Hope I helped
tl;dr no, just read it, too hard to exlain any shorter