Basking in the Sunshine

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Recently, I enjoyed basking in the sunshine at the beach. However, my wife remarked that it was just too hot for her to sit in the sun’s glare. Although she may have felt hot while lounging on the shore, on the sun’s surface, the temperature is around five and a half thousand degrees Celsius. And that’s relatively cool compared with the fifteen million degrees Celsius at its centre. If a grain of sand were this hot, it would burn everything within a 100 kilometre radius!

The sun provides both heat and energy for our survival. However, we don’t get our everyday energy directly from soaking up those rays! Rather, we get it from eating food which has conveniently stored the sun’s energy. All the energy you consume comes from the sun through a reaction called photosynthesis. During this process, a little green molecule in plants called chlorophyll, absorbs energy from the sun and turns it into sugars and carbohydrates. Then when you eat these carbohydrates you get the energy you need to maintain your body’s activities.

It’s the wonderful and exact match between the frequency of the sun’s radiant energy, and the energy needed to move those electrons in chlorophyll that starts the chain of chemical reactions that gives us our food.

So next time you’re basking in the sun, remember that although it may make you feel sleepy, the sun is actually at work to supply your reservoir of future energy.