Potato Osmosis Lab

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.

Purpose: The purpose of this lab is to familiarize you with osmosis and, specifically, what happens to cells when they are exposed to solutions of differing tonicities.

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.

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

During osmosis, solvents move across a semipermeable membrane in order to regulate the solute balance within the cell (Campbell Biology). Experiment 5.5 was conducted to further research osmotic activity, particularly in potato cells in different osmolarities of a NaCl solution. The goal of the experiment was to find out whether the potato slices used would be hypotonic or hypertonic to the different osmolarities. This process is relevant because without osmosis, the passage of solvents would not be possible. To perform the experiment, seven potato slices were soaked in 5cm of a different osmolarity level of a NaCl solution (0M – 0.6M) to determine whether each slice was hypotonic or hypertonic to the NaCl solution it was placed in, based on percent weight change. The prediction that the potato slices soaked in solutions with lesser osmolarities (0M – 0.1M) of NaCl would be hypotonic to their solutions, and the potato slices soaked in solutions with higher osmolarities (0.2M – 0.6M) would be hypertonic to their solutions was supported by this experiment because the slices soaked in (0.2M – 0.6M) had

The purpose of this experiment is to observe the natural process of osmosis using drops of sheep’s blood in various saline solutions. Since the cell membrane is a selective membrane, the water goes in and out freely but a solute such as NaCl it cannot freely move in or out. Osmosis is a passive process that doesn’t require the input of energy to transport water molecules across a membrane. The channels that allow water to enter or leave a cell are known as aquaporin. Using aquaporin, water moves from a solution with a low solute concentration to a solution with a higher solute concentration. This process continues until equilibrium in solute concentration is established between a cell and its environment.

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

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.

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.

Four eggs that were previously soaked in vinegar were placed into four beakers with different levels of a glucose solution. The four beakers were filled with distilled water, 0.5M glucose, 1.5M glucose and 2.0M glucose. After the eggs were placed in the solutions, they were left for 60 minutes but weighed every 15 minutes to record whether there was an increase or a decrease in mass. The various masses were recorded as well as the percent change in mass. These were then recorded as line graphs. From this it was able to be determined if the egg had been in a hypotonic, hypertonic or isotonic solution, thus being able to determine if osmosis had occurred.

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.

There could have been several variables that could have affected the results of this lab. One would have been if the salt measurements were incorrect. If more or less salt was added than realized, this would have caused the results to be incorrect. Another variable could have been the size of the potatoes being measured incorrectly. If

The way to get the full results of this lab was through the process of osmosis. Osmosis is the movement of water across a membrane into a more concentrated solution to reach an equilibrium. When regarding cells osmosis has three different terms that are used to describe their concentration. The first of these words is isotonic. Cells in an isotonic solution show that the water has no net movement and the amount of water that goes in is the same that goes out. Isotonic comes from the root iso, which means equal. This makes sense because the definition of isotonic is: same concentration. The second out of three words is hypotonic. Cells in a hypotonic

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

In this lab we are going to discovery how osmosis works using a semi-impermeable membrane a potato slice. Osmosis is known as the movement of water in and out of a cell. To understand how this works we must understand two terms. Hypotonic means the environment has less solutes compared to the inside of the cell. Hypertonic means that the environment has more solutes compared to the inside of the cell. With osmosis water will always move from hypotonic too hypertonic. So the question is will water move into the potato or out of the potato? Will these results change when placed in different morality of salt water? To calculate these results, we will measure the mass of potatoes cut into equal sizes then soak these potato slices in different morality of NaCl for thirty minutes and measure the mass change in each potato slice.