Timothy Wang

Review of F.C. Kerbeck and Sons

Cellular respiration is the process of breaking su...

Cellular respiration is the process of breaking sugar into a form that the cell can use as energy. This happens in all forms of life. Cellular respiration takes in food and uses it to create ATP, a chemical which the cell uses for energy.

Usually, this process uses oxygen, and is called aerobic respiration. It has four stages known as glycolysis, Link reaction, the Krebs cycle, and the electron transport chain. This produces ATP which supplies the energy that cells need to do work.

When they don't get enough oxygen, the cells use anaerobic respiration, which doesn t require oxygen. However, this process produces lactic acid, and is not as efficient as when oxygen is used.

Aerobic respiration, the process that does use oxygen, produces much more energy and doesn t produce lactic acid. It also produces carbon dioxide as a waste product, which then enters the circulatory system. The carbon dioxide is taken to the lungs, where it is exchanged for oxygen.

The simplified formula for aerobic cellular respiration is:

C6H12O6 + 6O2 6CO2 + 6H2O + Energy (as ATP)
The word equation for this is:

Glucose (sugar) + Oxygen Carbon dioxide + Water + Energy (as ATP)
Aerobic cellular respiration has four stages. Each is important, and could not happen without the one before it. The steps of aerobic cellular respiration are:

Glycolysis (the break down of glucose)
Link reaction
Krebs cycle
Electron transport chain, or ETC