- The overall equation for photosynthesis is 6CO₂ + 6H₂O + Light Energy → C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂. - Experiments using isotopic tracing (specifically, using water labeled with the heavy oxygen isotope ¹⁸O) demonstrated that the ¹⁸O appeared in the evolved oxygen gas, while using carbon dioxide labeled with ¹⁸O resulted in the ¹⁸O appearing in the glucose product, not the oxygen gas.