Answer 1:
In theory, yes, but it never happens for the
following reason. The oxygen that the plant
produces actually comes from the water, not
the carbon dioxide, that the plant is using. We
know this because if you replace the oxygen in the
carbon dioxide with a radioactive isotope, the
radioactive oxygen will get incorporated into the
plant, not released into the air. However, if you
make the oxygen in the water radioactive, then the
plant will give off radioactive oxygen.
However, loose hydrogen inside of a plant will
make the plant's internal fluids very acid, since
loose protons in water are what make something
acid. This would kill the plant. Therefore a
plant will never strip the hydrogens off of water
without carbon to bind them to, which is why,
in practice, plants only release oxygen when
they have carbon dioxide to use.
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