Plants make their food from carbon dioxide and water. Animals eat carbohydrates to give them energy. Carbohydrates contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. The chemical symbol for carbon is C . The atomic number for carbon is 6.
Carbon exists in many different forms.
They each have very different properties because the carbon atoms are arranged differently. Carbon-60 has a similar structure to a football. Clearly a molecule of carbon-60 is smaller. Plants extract carbon from the atmosphere and convert it into food. During photosynthesis, carbon dioxide reacts with water to form carbohydrates and oxygen.