Plants use sunlight as energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen. Which best describes the reaction?

The law of conservation of mass says matter is not created or destroyed in a chemical reaction, so the atoms—and therefore the amount of carbon—are balanced between reactants and products. In photosynthesis, carbon dioxide supplies the carbon that becomes part of glucose. The amount of glucose is not the same on both sides because glucose is a product, not a reactant; energy conservation does not describe the balancing of carbon atoms.

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