Essay on Osmosis in Onion Cell

I know that osmosis will occur in the vegetables, but I am not sure of

This exercise is aimed at giving a better understanding of the process of osmosis by analyzing how the decalcified eggs behave under different experimental conditions. The shell-less eggs used represented a model for a living cell and its selectively (semi) permeable membrane.

Finally, it could also be a hypertonic solution which is when there is a higher concentration of solute in the solution than in the cell and therefore the water leaves the cell. This make the cell plasmolyzed or “shrunken”. In our experiment this means that the potato cell would

In this assignment I will be describing the microstructure of a typical animal cell and the functions of the main cell components. Describing and explaining the factors the ways in which materials move in and out of cells. I will also be analysing the role of the phospholipid bilayer in terms of movement of materials in and out of cells.

Osmosis is the passive movement of water from an area of low solute concentration to an area of high solute concentration, normally across a membrane which prevents the movement of solvent. This is a process by which materials may move into, out of, or within cells. Osmosis doesn’t depend on energy provided by living organisms but is affected by the properties of the cell membrane. The rate of osmosis is dependent on such factors as temperature, pressure, molecular properties such as size and mass, and the concentration gradient. In osmosis, the relationship between a solute’s concentration outside of cell and inside of a cell is described in terms of the tonicity of the solution outside of the cell. A cell is in a hypotonic solution when the solute is more concentrated inside the cell and therefore water moves into the cell. In this solution the cell swells as water enters, this may continue until it ruptures or hemolyzes. In the reverse condition, the cell is in a hypertonic solution

When we looked under the microscope to observe elodea under different circumstances, it was made clear that something was happening as we added sugar to the leaf. The insides of the elodea leaf cells became “smaller.” Those small green structures inside the cells that were tightly packed to the cell wall are called chloroplasts. When a sugar-water solution was dropped onto the elodea leaf, the chloroplasts began shrinking and the gap between the plasma membrane and the cell wall increased. The process is known as plasmolysis. In order to prove that sugar “shrunk” the inside the of the cells, we had to set up a controlled experiment. The basic idea of the experiment was

what happens when a cell is placed in isotonic, hypertonic, and hypotonic solutions ; why an egg without it s shell is a good model of showing osmosis across a cell’s membrane and why , in order to perform the experiment, the egg needs to be soaked in vinegar first ; describe the concentrations of the solute to solvent in vinegar, syrup, and water ) .

To observe the primary features of a eukaryotic cell we used a compound microscope. We tested the effect concentration gradients had on the rate of osmosis two ways: with potato tissue and with dialysis tubes. We used potato slices, paper towels, bowls, sodium chloride (at different concentration levels), and a scale to test potato tissue. We used dialysis tubing, sucrose solution (10% and 40% concentration gradients), plastic clips, bags, distilled water, and a scale to test the rate of osmosis with dialysis tubes. To test the solute concentration on the tonicity of cells in plant tissue and Elodea, we used Elodea, water, sodium chloride solution, tap water, a coverslip, and Kimwipe

Osmosis is diffusion of water across a selectively permeable membrane. The net movement of water through the membrane goes from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration until equilibrium is found. When a cell is placed in an isotonic environment, equal solute concentration, there will have no net movement of water. A hypertonic environment will have a greater solute concentration, where the cell will have a lower solute concentration. A hypotonic environment will have a lower solute concentration and the cell will have a higher solute concentration. A small lab experiment was done, with the purpose of finding the solute concentration, inside decalcified eggs. The experiment was done using four decalcified

Cells in all living things have an outer layer known as the cell membrane. The structure of the cell membrane consists of the phospholipid bilayer organized by the arrangement of hydrophilic heads and hydrophobic tails. It is a selectively permeable membrane, where it divides the outer environment from the interior of the cell. It can control substances moving in and out of living cells. Certain molecules like gases, water, and food are permitted to pass the membrane through the method of diffusion. Diffusion refers to the process in which molecules move on the concentration gradient, where they move from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration. A type of diffusion is known as osmosis. It is the diffusion of water moving across the selectively permeable membrane. In this lab, students will be using eggs to construct an experiment to get a better study on how osmosis works in a cell. The eggs will be soaked in vinegar solution to remove their shells to expose each inner layer that resembles a selectively permeable membrane. The egg shell is composed of calcium carbonate that would dissolves in acidic solution such as vinegar. In the chemical reaction, it releases carbon dioxide gas. After the removal of the egg shell, it will be ready to be able to construct the experiment.

Both slides 1 and 2 were placed in the beaker containing bleach. A drop of 0% NaCl solution was then placed onto the third slide. A drop of 10% NaCl was added to slide 4 and cover-slips were placed over both slides. Slide 3 was observed under 40X, 100X and 400X (in order) for signs the cells had changed shape.

Plant cells react differently to osmosis than animal cells. When an animal cell is placed in a hypertonic solution, water will leave the cell causing it to shrink, this is known as crenation. When a plant cell is placed in a hypertonic solution the cell membrane will pull away from the cell wall, making the plant flaccid, this is known as plasmolysis. When an animal cell is placed in a hypotonic solution, water will rush in to the cell, causing it to swell and sometimes burst. A plant cell placed in a hypotonic solution will also swell due to water rushing in, but will resist rupturing due to the rigid cell wall. Plant cells become more rigid in a hypotonic solution.

All cells have a plasma membrane that is semi-permeable, meaning that it only allows certain particles or molecules to pass through. Osmosis is a method of passive transport by which water molecules diffuse through the membrane from an area of low solute concentration to an area of high solute concentration. The direction the water will move is heavily dependent on the tonicity of the solution in which the cell is immersed. A solution with more solutes than the inside of the cell would be hypertonic. Meanwhile, a solution would be hypotonic if it had less solutes than the inside of the cell and isotonic if it had the same number of solutes. In this lab, the mass of potato slices will be monitored after they have been placed in aqueous solutions

The goal of this lab was to try and understand the effects of osmosis on living cells and to be able to calculate water potential of living cells. This hypothesis was tested because it’s important to know how much water a cell can obtain without bursting. The process that this lab was based on is osmosis, which is a type of diffusion. “Diffusion is the movement of molecules from a high concentration to a low concentration”(Anderson). Osmosis is the process of diffusion but involving water moving from a higher concentration to a lower concentration. Osmosis affects cells because if a cell has a low concentration of water, whenever water is absorbed into an organism the water will naturally move into the cells with the least amount of water because

Data: Effect of Solute Concentration on Osmosis in Potato Cells (for the 6 groups of our class)