Potato Cubes Mass Lab Report

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

3) The mass of the potato cells would decrease, since the NaCl is a higher concentration than theH20 molecules inside the potato cells. So, the potato’s cells will evacuate and go into the surroundings, making it shrivel. This is known as a hypotonic solution.

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.

Diffusion is the movement of molecules from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration until equilibrium is reached. Osmosis, however, is the movement of water according to its own concentration gradient across a selectively

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

Hypothesis: I think that the potato will absorb more starch than the sweet potato and they will both absorb relatively similar amounts of water.

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.

There were no qualitative changes to the potato that could be detected by the five senses after the cubes were taken out of the water

The potato cells, took in, or gave out the water depending on the concentration of the solution it is surrounded in. The results were fine and by looking at the mass measured before the experiment, you can see that there is no reading which seems to be out of the line. As the weights before the experiment range between 2.31g and 2.46g, this tells us that the potato pieces were cut well, and I believe accurate enough. The results show that: - Osmosis actually took place in the experiment.

Showing an example of diffusion with the water molecules equally back and forth the semi-permeable membrane of the potatoes and the saucer of water. The hypertonic solution of salt water has given an example of osmosis. The water molecules passed through the semi-permeable membrane out of the potatoes but weren’t able to get back in as easily due to the salt blocking the membranes passage. This left the potatoes in the salt water saucer feeling flexible and spongy almost leaving the potato a little

However one beaker received 100 mL of Deionized water with a molarity of 0.0. Afterwards a cork borer was pushed through the potato and was twisted back and forth. Once the borer was filled it was removed from the potato. Pushing the potato cylinder out of the borer, this this step was repeated six more times in order to get seven undamaged potato cylinders. Using a sharp razor blade, the potato cylinders were both cut to a uniform length of about 5cm, and were removed of their potato skins. The potato pieces were also cut in half to give the cells a greater surface area in which it was easier to absorb the solution. After the cylinders were weighed on a balance and the data was recorded in Table 4. Using the razor blade each potato was cut lengthwise into two long halves. Then the potato pieces were transferred to the water beaker and the time they were submerged was recorded. This step was repeated for all potato cylinders in which the pieces were placed in solutions 0.1 to 0.6 M. The potatoes were incubated for ninety minutes. At the end of the incubation period the time was recorded. Then the potato piece was removed form the first sample. Next potato pieces were weighed the and the final weight was recorded in Table 4. This procedure was repeated until all samples had been weighed and recorded in the chronological order they were initially placed in the test solution. Afterwards the table was completed by recording the

Osmosis is a special type of diffusion. It is the diffusion of water across a semipermeable membrane which is a membrane that is freely permeable to water but is not freely permeable to solutes, the water moves from a dilute solution to a more concentrated solution (Karp, 2010). Both diffusion and osmosis are passive transport, energy is not used in the transport. In osmosis water moves across a membrane toward the solution of greater concentration, because the concentration of water is lower there (Martini and Bartholomew., 2007).

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.

This would happen by using similar sizes and lengths of potato cylinders and applying the into different concentrations of sucrose (0,10%,30%, 50%, 70%) in foam cups then measuring the change in mass of the potato cylinders afterwards. Maintaining all variables unchanged such as pH, same size, covered solutions, and a constant temperature. The time taken for all potato cylinders will be 24 hours.

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