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The Effect of Sucrose on Liver Cells

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Prediction Osmosis is the "net movement of water molecules from an area of high water potential to an area of low water potential through a partially permeable membrane." The diagram below illustrates the process of osmosis. (See Figure 1) As shown by the Figure 1, water molecules move from a region where there are many water molecules to an area of less water molecules. This means that in the potato cells, water molecules will move in or out of the cell depending on the concentration of the sucrose solution and the water potential that the cell has. The process of water molecules moving out a cell is called exosmosis and the process of water moving into a cell is called endosmosis. Endosmosis occurs when the water potential …show more content…

Plan The graph drawn from the preliminary results show that at a concentration of 0.4M the percentage change in mass is 0%. Using graph 2 I can determine the water potential at this concentration. The water potential is -1150kPa but this is not the water potential of all the cells as each cell in the potato piece will have different water potential and the water potential may vary greatly. Below are the results of a group of 11 results for the concentration at which there is 0% change in mass from the experiment: 0.26M 0.34M 0.36M 0.32M 0.25M 0.4M 0.5M 0.33M 0.33M 0.34M 0.32M This shows a variety in the concentrations as there are concentrations between the range of 0.2M – 0.6M. This shows that the water potential for potato pieces is most likely in the range of 0.2M – 0.6M. The different concentrations may be due to that the method of drying the potato pieces may not be consistent each time but also because each cell will have a natural variation of water potential. Also the graph drawn showing concentration against average percentage change in mass may not be accurate. My graph shows that at 0.4M the line of best fit passes through it. However, my results at 0.4M all show exosmosis with a drop in mass. This is because the low concentrations and high concentrations may shift the line of best if investigated further. This is because at the concentrations near 1.0M may show the same results as at upper

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