Question

A student places a healthy potted plant and a plastic straw in a closet for two weeks. After two weeks, the student observes that the plant is wilted and brown, while the plastic straw remains the same. The student classifies the plant as living and the plastic straw as nonliving.

What criteria does the student use to classify the plant as living rather than nonliving?

Answer 1

Plants need water and sun to create their food source, glucose. When the plant was left in the closet it didn't have access to the sun. One of the requirements of life is that all living things need energy/have a metabolism. Without food the plant eventually died.