Osmosis in Potatoes

Aim: To find the concentration of a potato cell cytoplasm compared to sucrose and salt. I mainly was looking to see how concentration of salt/sucrose affects the mass of the potato cores.

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

As the Concentration of the Sucrose Solution decreases, the more the potato’s mass increases. This is due to the solution being hypertonic. So, as the solute concentration gets lower, the potato’s water concentration will get higher, therefore more water particles from the solution will absorbed by the potato. Some changed very little in mass because the concentrations of the H2O molecules in the potato and outside the potato were equal. This equality in concentration is called Isotonic.

Using different sizes of potato could show us whether the concentration of enzyme affect the rate of reaction. However, this would not be a practical independent variable as the S.A to volume ratio would not be proportional and the size of the potato to get significant results would be very hard to change. It would be very hard to cut the potato tubers to exact measurements and that could lead to the results becoming inaccurate. An option could be to cut the potato tube into small 1 cm bits and pile then up on top of each other in the test tube, but this again would prove to be impractical as then not all of the surface area of the potato would be exposed to the substrate and this would make my results unreliable. It may also prove to be impractical as having the tuber bits piled on top of each

How do different concentrations of sucrose solutions (0M, 0.2M, 0.4M, 0.6M, 0.8M, 1M) affect the mass of potato cores when in sucrose solution?

Figure 1: Percentage change in potato tuber mass vs. sucrose concentration. The percent change in mass decreased as the sucrose concentration increased. Relative osmotic concentration was measured as the percent change in mass of sucrose concentration over one hour.

The graph above indicates that as the concentration of sucrose solution (%) is increased, the percentage change in mass decreases, thus it can be supposed that there is a negative correlation between the sucrose concentrations and the mass of potato cubes. It is also apparent from the graph above that an error has occurred during the 15% sucrose trial as it appears as an outlier also it can be estimated from the graph that approximately10% sucrose solution is the isotonic condition as there is no big change in mass.

Procedure: Variables: Controlled- water and size of potatoes. Manipulated variables- potatoes growth based on contents of solution.

To test the change in the masses of the potato cores, the cores will be exposed to five solutions ranging from 0.0M solution to a 0.8M solution of sucrose. To ensure experiment consistency each core was cut

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

Effect of Sucrose Solution on Osmosis Aim: The aim of the experiment is to show how varying the concentration of sucrose solution affects osmosis by changing different molar solutions of sucrose and water and how it affects the potato. Introduction: In this investigation I will be exploring the effect of varying concentration of sucrose sugar solution on the amount of activity between the solution and the potatoes. Osmosis is the movement of water molecules across a partially permeable membrane from a high water concentration to a low water concentration.

The dependent variable in the experiment was the percent change in mass and the independent variable was the solution. This is a quantitative experiment because it was measuring the percent change in the mass of the potatoes.

The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the effect of the change in concentration of sucrose on the rate of osmosis in cylinders of potatoes.

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

Within every cell, a movement of a solvent occurs through a semipermeable membrane to equalize the concentration of solute on both sides of the membrane. The diffusion of water across the cell’s membrane down to its concentration gradient is called osmosis. In this case, the concentration gradient is the difference of density between one side of the cell membrane to the other. Since the cell’s membrane is permeable, particles can flow freely in and out of the cell, but the net flow will be strong in the direction of lower concentration until the system has reached a stage of equilibrium, the point at which both sides of the membrane are equal. In the