It's November and fall is in full swing.

You're walking through your neighborhood and crunching through piles of colorful leaves.

Reds, oranges, yellows, and browns, carpet the ground beneath your feet.

You look up at the trees and see a beautiful mix of colors painting the branches.

The air is cool and crisp.

You pull your jacket a little tighter. Fall is here, and it's

absolutely gorgeous. But have you ever wondered why this happens? Why do green leaves suddenly

turn into all these amazing colors? The answer is actually pretty cool, and it's all about

science. Let's start by talking about what makes leaves green in the first place. Inside

every leaf, there's a special chemical called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is super important because

it helps trees make their food. During spring and summer, leaves use chlorophyll to capture energy

from the sun. They mix that sunlight with water from the ground and carbon dioxide

from the air. This process is called photosynthesis, which is just a fancy way of saying,

making food with light. When leaves do this, they create sugar that feeds the tree and helps it

grow. They also make oxygen, which is what we breathe. So leaves

are pretty amazing when you think about it. Chlorophyll is what gives leaves their bright green

color. During the warm months when there's lots of sunshine, trees keep making more and more

chlorophyll. The green is so strong that it covers up all the other colors hiding in the leaves.

That's right. Those beautiful fall colors have been there all along. They're just hidden underneath all that green.

So what changes in the fall? Well, trees are really smart. They can sense when the days are getting shorter and the temperature is dropping.

These are signals that winter is coming.

In the winter, it gets cold and there's less sunlight. Trees know they need to save their energy

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