Osmosis in Potato Cells Essay

My prediction is that as the concentration increases, the potato cell will lose more weight. This is because of the osmosis of water particles from the potato cell cytoplasm to the solution, resulting in a loss of weight. As the concentration decreases, the potato will lose less weight until a certain point where the osmosis of particles in and out of the potato cells will be equal. I also predict that as the salt

As the lab introduction explains, osmosis is relatively permeable to water and will follow solutes. By instinct, the water will move from a more diluted solution to more of a concentrated solution. The products of the experiments concluded the physiological significance of osmosis by how cell membranes in the body are semipermeable meaning that only certain molecules can pass through it. When intracellular fluid and extracellular fluid are at equilibrium by non-penetrating and concentrated solutes, no net movement of water goes in and out of the cell. Furthermore, if the ECF changes in osmolality, then depending on the difference between the ECF and ICF will determine whether water moves in or out of the cell. This is important in the cell membrane as small differences in osmolarity correspond to large, rapid change in osmotic pressure, causing cells to gain or lose water. In sum, our body makes critical decisions in what molecules are allowed to penetrate the cell membrane and make sure that our red blood cells don’t cause any problems within the

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

Osmosis is a natural occurrence constantly happening within the cells of all living things. For osmosis to occur, water molecules must move across a semipermeable membrane from an area of low concentration to an are of high concentration. In order to understand osmosis, people must understand the different types of concentrations that can be present within solution. One of them is an Isotonic solution where the concentration of dissolved particles is equal to that of a cell’s. Another is a hypertonic solution where there is a higher concentration of dissolved particles then inside the cell. And lastly there is a hypotonic solution where there are less dissolved particles than inside the cell. As dissolved particles move to a region of lower concentration, water moves the opposite direction as a result of there being less water in the highly concentrated region. In this experiment, gummy bears were placed in salt water, sugar water, and tap water to find the measure of osmosis between the solution and gummy bear.

The main purpose of the experiment was to test the idea that water would move from the higher concentration to the lower concentration. In order to test this theory, we placed potato slices in 7 different containers, each containing different concentrations of NaCl, to measure the weight change from osmosis. The containers ranged from 0M NaCl all the way to .6M NaCl. We measured the potato slices before and after placing the slices in the solutions and recorded the net change in weight to determine the tonicity of the potato cells. Our results showed that the potato slices put in a NaCl solution of .2M or higher lost weight and the potato slices put in a NaCl solution of .1M or lower gained weight. This shows that the osmolarity of the potato falls within the range of .1M to .2M, and it also proves the process of Osmosis by having the higher concentration move to the lower concentration. In addition to this, it can be concluded that the osmolarity of cells can be determined by observing the affects of osmosis.

The lab for this paper was conducted for the topic of osmosis, the movement of water from high to low concentration. Five artificial cells were created, each being filled with different concentrated solutions of sucrose. These artificial cells were placed in hypertonic, hypotonic, or isotonic solutions for a period of 90 min. Over time, the rate of osmosis was measured by calculating the weight of each artificial cell on given intervals (every 10 minutes). The resulting weights were recorded and the data was graphed. We then could draw conclusions on the lab.

Either the solution is hypotonic which means that the solution has a lower concentration than the potato core and this would cause water to flow into the potato and make it larger and therefore increase its mass. The state the cell is in is called turgid.

Though the theory following the hypothesis is correct and the experiment was carried out with as much attention as possible in a high school laboratory, the results obtained were still indicative of a few errors and did not support the predicted hypothesis. From the results obtained it can be concluded that as the concentration of sucrose increases the average percentage change in mass decreases. This is because the salt concentration inside the potato cubes of 10%, 15% and 20% concentration is less that in the salt concentration on the sucrose solution, thus the three cubes submerged in the 10% - 20% concentrated solution lost mass (hypertonic). However the cube submerged

Osmosis is defined as the tendency of water to flow through a semipermeable membrane to the side with a lower solute concentration. Water potential can be explained by solutes in a solution. The more positive a number is more likely it will lose water. Therefore should water potential be negative the cell the less likely it will lose water. In using potatoes the effects of the molarity of sucrose on the turgidity of plant cells. According to Clemson University, the average molarity of a White potato is between .24 M and .31 M when submerged in a sorbitol solution. This experiment was conducted with the purpose of explaining the relationship found between the mass in plants when put into varying concentrations of sucrose solutions. Should the potatoes be placed in a solution that contains 0.2M or .4M of sucrose solution it will be hypotonic and gain mass or if placed in .6M< it will be hypertonic and lose mass instead. Controlled Variables in this lab were: Composition of plastic cups, Brand of Russet Potatoes, Brand of Sweet Potatoes and the Temperature of the room. For independent variable that caused the results recorded it was the different Sucrose concentrations (0.0M, 0.2M, 0.4M, 0.6M, 0.8M, 1M). The dependent variable was the percentage change from the initial weighs to the final. The cup with .4 molarity was the closest to an isotonic solution and was used as the control group for the lab. Water potential is the free energy per mole of water. It is

out the potato and dry it to ensure excess water is not added to the

Van’t Hoff’s Law suggests that the osmotic potential of a cell is proportional to the concentration of solute particles in a solution. The purpose of this experiment was to determine if there are any differences between the osmolalities, the no-weight-changes of osmolalities, and the water potentials of potato cores in different solutions of different solutes. The percent weight change of the potato cores was calculated through a “change in weight” method. The potato core’s weight was measured before and after they were put into different concentrations of a solute for 1.5 hours. In our experiment, there were no significant differences from the osmotic potentials of our results and the osmotic potentials of other scientists work. Ending with chi square values of 2.17 and 2.71, and p values of 0.256 and 0.337, concluding that there is no difference in water potentials of potato cores in different solutions of different solutes at varying concentrations.

In conclusion, the potato cube with the highest surface area to volume ratio (the 1x1x1 cube) had the fastest rate of diffusion as it had the largest percentage increase in mass. While all the other cubes of potato had larger increases in mass at face value compared to the smallest cube, the smallest cube had the largest overall gain in percentage. The results support my hypothesis that the smallest cube will have a higher rate of osmosis because it has a proportionally larger amount of surface area compared to its volume.

The aim of the sixteenth of November experiments was to observe how three different solutions with various sucrose concentration influenced osmosis in relation to three onion cells and the impact on the cells structure.

In conclusion when the molarity level was at 0 and at .2 the potatoes had gained mass so therefore they were placed in a hypotonic environments. When the molarity level was .4 and above the potatoes loss mass so therefore they were placed in hypertonic environments. So the different in concentrations does change the mass of the potatoes because they determine the osmosis environments.

Osmosis is the movement of water molecules from high concentration to low concentration through semipermeable membranes, caused by the difference in concentrations on the two sides of a membrane (Rbowen, L.). It occurs in both animals and plants cells. In human bodies, the process of osmosis is primarily found in the kidneys, in the glomerulus. In plants, osmosis is carried out everywhere within the cells of the plant (World Book, 1997). This can be shown by an experiment with potato and glucose/salt solution. The experiment requires putting a piece (or more) of potatoes into glucose or salt solution to see the result of osmosis (a hypertonic type of solution is mostly used as it would give the most prominent visual prove of