Am i dumb for thinking this?

Question

Ok so i dont think that u need the sun to get pudding.....my friend says that the sun helps the cocoa plant grow and then they get the chocolate and mix it into pudding....but i Say that cocoa plant dont need sun cuz they are in the rainforest so they just need rain cuz all the big plants cover them so they dont get any sun...so im right they dont need sun to grow right??? Or tell me if im wrong???

Answer 1

I will stop short of saying you're dumb, and simply note that you are incorrect in your thinking.



First, technically you would need the sun to get pudding no matter what type it was, because without it, Earth wouldn't generate sufficient heat to sustain life and everything to include its atmosphere would have completely frozen long, long ago.



No sun = no atmosphere warm enough to breathe = no water warm enough to exist in liquid form = no grass = no cow = no milk for pudding.



No sun also = no sunlight for cane or beets = no beets growing and making sugar through photosynthesis = no sugar for pudding.



So, no sun = no pudding in a variety of different ways.



Sticking specifically to the cacao plant, though, just because the cacao plant is not at the uppermost level of the rainforest canopy doesn't mean it gets NO sunlight. It just means it gets less sunlight. It's pretty obvious it still does get some, though. For instance, take a look at these cacao plants:



http://www.molon.de/galleries/Malaysia/WestCoast/Cocoa/images01/03%20Cocoa%20tree.jpg

http://www.hear.org/starr/images/image/?q=070321-6121&o=plants

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/21053508

http://rainforestkayaking.com/v2/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/078-cocoa-tree.jpg



Now, all of these images have a couple of things in common. We can quickly establish that the cocoa plant is a type of tree, that it tends to bear large fruit, and we can see in all those instances that the plants are sitting in an area where they will receive SOME sunlight, but even if they were wild, it would still be easy to tell they require sunlight to live because they all have one very important feature in common.



They all have thick canopies of broad, green leaves.



It takes a lot of energy to make a canopy of leaves like that, so they must serve some purpose that makes it worth the plant's while to spend that much energy, and the green color tends to tell us what that is.



All those green leaves are chock full of chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is what plants use to manufacture food through the process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis requires sunlight in order to work...



Ergo, the cacao plant must use sunlight in order to make the food it needs to survive and produce the cacao fruit which contains the beans we turn into cocoa to make the chocolate pudding.



Finally, need the sunlight to dry and age the cacao beans once they've been harvested. Like coffee, they're not very good before we process them, and a large part of the process involves leaving them out in the sun so it can do its work on them.



So your friend is right. The sun is very necessary to the process.

Answer 2

For goodness sake give this person a short, correct answer.



All plants use sunlight to produce energy and synthesise carbon dioxide (from the air) with water to create carbohydrates, from which the plant material is made. The process is called photosynthesis and the plant uses the green enzyme chlorophyll to do the chemical work with the aid of sunlight. That is why leaves are green.



This is what leaves do. Did you not know that? Did you not learn this at school? I am shocked. It is the basis of all life. Animals would not be here if plants were not doing this, and had not been doing this for nigh on a billion years.



When you look at the bark of a tree, which is chiefly made of carbon, that carbon did not come from the ground. It came out of the air - from carbon dioxide, sequestered out of the air by the green leaves with the aid of sunlight. .

Answer 3

Yes you are.