what criteria do we use to decide whether something is alive???
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72
Life is quite hard to define and cannot be simply be put in one sentence. It is therefore important to note we use a set of characteristics to determine what is a live and what is not.
There are seven main characteristics of living things that help to differentiate them from the non-living things.
Here are the seven characteristics that determine presence of life in object.
1 Nutrition
Nutrition is the process by which organisms obtain energy and raw materials for growth from nutrients such as proteins, carbohydrates and fats. This is the process of feeding- all living organisms feed.
2 Respiration
This is the process by which living organisms produce energy in their cells. It involves the utilization of oxygen to breakdown food substances such as carbohydrates to give energy. The process uses oxygen and in turn releases Carbon(IV)oxide.
3 Movement
All living things do move, and that includes both animals and plants. The movement in animals may be obvious unlike that in plants, but plants also make movements, though slow and at times unnoticeable. 4 Excretion
Living things have mechanisms of expelling and eliminating waste and toxic matters from their systems.
5 Growth
All living things grow. This is the process by which the raw materials obtained in nutrition is used in the permanent increase in the number of cells and size of the organism.
6 Reproduction
This is the process by which a crop of new individual organisms are produced from the existing parent. It is also called procreation or breeding. All living organisms reproduce.
7 Sensitivity
All living things are able to respond to their environment. This implies that they have the ability to sense and respond to stimuli around them such as light, temperature, water, gravity and chemical substances.
Therefore, for something to be categorized as living, it has to exhibit all of the above characteristics. That is how we decide whether something is alive.
There are seven main characteristics of living things that help to differentiate them from the non-living things.
Here are the seven characteristics that determine presence of life in object.
1 Nutrition
Nutrition is the process by which organisms obtain energy and raw materials for growth from nutrients such as proteins, carbohydrates and fats. This is the process of feeding- all living organisms feed.
2 Respiration
This is the process by which living organisms produce energy in their cells. It involves the utilization of oxygen to breakdown food substances such as carbohydrates to give energy. The process uses oxygen and in turn releases Carbon(IV)oxide.
3 Movement
All living things do move, and that includes both animals and plants. The movement in animals may be obvious unlike that in plants, but plants also make movements, though slow and at times unnoticeable. 4 Excretion
Living things have mechanisms of expelling and eliminating waste and toxic matters from their systems.
5 Growth
All living things grow. This is the process by which the raw materials obtained in nutrition is used in the permanent increase in the number of cells and size of the organism.
6 Reproduction
This is the process by which a crop of new individual organisms are produced from the existing parent. It is also called procreation or breeding. All living organisms reproduce.
7 Sensitivity
All living things are able to respond to their environment. This implies that they have the ability to sense and respond to stimuli around them such as light, temperature, water, gravity and chemical substances.
Therefore, for something to be categorized as living, it has to exhibit all of the above characteristics. That is how we decide whether something is alive.
Answered by
19
We have many things which indicate whether anything is alive or not .
Some of the activities which are visible to us or that we can observe clearly are as follows :
• Living things have movements. That movement can be from one place to another or that movement can be observed in a few parts of the body.
• Living things need food for their survival.
• Living things gain some growth.
• Living things do respiration. That is they do the exchange of gases.
• Living things are sensitive. That is they respond to the changes around them.
• Living things reproduce. That is they can produce their young ones.
• Living things to excretion. That is they remove the waste inside their bodies.
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