All About Osmosis
Introduction/What is Osmosis: Osmosis is the movement of a solvent or
liquid; usually water, through a semi-permeable membrane separating
solutions of different concentrations. The solvent passes from a less
concentrated solution to a more concentrated solution until the two
concentrations are equal. Many cell membranes behave as semi-permeable
membranes and osmosis is a vital mechanism in the transport of fluids
in living organisms; for example, the transport of water from the
roots up the stems of plants.
Osmosis is a special case of diffusion, diffusion being the movement
of particles from an area of high concentration to an area of low
concentration. Osmosis is simply the movement of water molecules from
a region of high water concentration to a region of low water
concentration, across a semi-permeable membrane.
A semi-permeable membrane is a barrier with small holes in, the holes
are so small that only water can pass through them, bigger molecules
like glucose cannot. The water molecules actually pass both ways
through the membrane but because there are more on one side than the
other there is a steady flow into the region with the fewer water
molecules, i.e. into the stronger solution (of glucose). This causes
the glucose-rich region to fill up with water.
Osmosis makes plant cells swell up if they are surrounded by a weak
solution, and they become turgid, the water molecules enter the plant
cells. In a strong solution, the plant cells would shrink because the
water molecules are leaving the plant cells.
Aim: To investigate the effects of different concentrations of sugar
solutions on potato cells by measuring the change in weight of potato
tubes after placing them in the solutions for a measured amount of
time.
What I Will Change: The concentration of sugar will be the only
controlled variable in this experiment; this will be prepared by
making a molar sugar solution and diluting it with variable quantities
of distilled water, as follows.
Concentration of Sugar solution (M)
Volume of 1M sugar solution (cm3)
Considering the fact that Marc has both been sweating and drinking minimal amounts of water, Marc is now dehydrated. This means he has less than the required amount of water for his body to complete the processes necessary to maintain its health. As stated in the question, the process of sweating causes the loss of more water than solutes. This means that as the level of water decreases, the level of solute concentration will increase, creating a change in the water to solute ratio.
However, in this diagram we see that osmosis has been taking place for a short while, because water molecules have started to diffuse to the right, across the membrane, so that there are now many present on the right side of the membrane, and a few sugar molecules are starting to diffuse across the membrane in the opposite direction, to the left side of the membrane as we see it. Through moving from an area of lots of free water molecules, to an
Osmosis Experiment Planning Aim: The main subject that I will be planning to investigate is the effects of a concentrated sucrose solution on potato cells on the basis of the Osmosis theory. Background knowledge: The plant cell and its structure To understand osmosis in detail I will need to explain the plant cell (which is the cell included in the osmosis experiment) and its cell membrane. Below I have a diagram of a plant cell: [IMAGE] Osmosis is about the movement of particles from a higher concentrated solution to a lower concentrated solution to create an ethical balance via a partially or semi permeable cell membrane. Osmosis in simple terms is the exchange of particles between the cytoplasm inside the cell and the solution outside the cell. What makes this exhange is the partially permable cell membrane.
If the concentration of one side of the membrane is greater than the molecules will travel from the higher to lower concentration. Eventually there will be a dynamic equilibrium and there will be no net movement of molecules from one side to the other. Osmosis is the diffusion of water. Like diffusion, the water moves from a region of higher water potential to a region of lower water potential.
* We would have to leave one end open to fill it up with the different
Osmosis is a type of diffusion which is only applied on water and is a passive process which does not require an input of energy from the cell; this is because materials are moving with the concentration gradient. Osmosis is a process that occurs at a cellular level, which entails the spontaneous net movement of water through a selectively permeable membrane, from a region of high to low water concentration, in order to equalise the level of water in each region. This form of diffusion takes place when the molecules in a high concentration are too large to move through the membrane. The term semi-permeable or selectively permeable means that some substances can easily pass through the cell membrane, whereas others cannot. The significance of osmosis to cells is great, since it is the osmotic pressure that maintains the shape of an animal cell and provides support in the plant cells. Many factors affect the rate of osmosis including size of particles and temperature however in this particular experiment the factor investigated is the concentration of sodium chloride. Tubes of potatoes will be used to demonstrate the fact...
In osmosis, water can travel in three different ways. If the molecules outside the cell are lower than the concentration in the cytosol, the solution is said to be hypotonic to the cytosol, in this process, water diffuses into the cell until equilibrium is established. If the molecules outside the cell are higher than the concentration in the cytosol, the solution is said to be hypertonic to the cytosol, in this process, water diffuses out of the cell until equilibrium exists. If the molecules outside and inside the cell are equal, the solution is said to be isotonic to the cytosol, in this process, water diffuses into and out of the cell at equal rates, causing no net movement of water. In osmosis the cell is selectively permeable, meaning that it only allows certain substances to be transferred into and out of the cell.
Investigate the Osmosis of Potato Cells in Various Salt Solutions. Introduction I have been asked to investigate the effect of changing the concentration of a solution on the movement of water into and out of potato cells. I will be able to change the input of my experiment. The input variable is the concentration of the solution.
Osmosis is the facilitated diffusion of water across the cell membrane of a cell. The inside layer of the cell membrane is hydrophilic, meaning water cannot easily pass through the membrane. The cell membrane has to have aquaporins, which are water channel proteins, that move the water across the membrane. If there is a water and salt solution outside the cell, the salt can enter the cell by diffusion, but the cell membrane is not permeable to the water. Because there is more solute solution inside the cell, there is less water. The aquaporins move the water across the membrane until equilibrium is reached.
When doing this experiment I was able to see the effect of different concentrations on the rate of osmosis, each was done by measuring the initial mass and length of the potato cylinder and after osmosis, the results were conducted to show that as the sucrose concentration increases the rate of osmosis also increases as I said in my hypothesis thusly making a direct decrease in mass.
- The nurse’s mistake will increase the saltiness due to the double amount of saline in the bag.
Investigating the Effect of Sugar Solution on the Weight and Size of Potato Cells Aim: To investigate whether the different concentration of sugar solution will affect the weight and size of the potato cells. General background information: Osmosis is defined as the movement of water or any other solution's molecules from an area in which they are highly concentrated to a region in which they are less concentrated. This movement must take place across a partially permeable membrane such as a cell wall, which lets smaller molecules (E.g. water) through but does not allow larger solute molecules to pass through. The molecules will continue to diffuse until the area in which the molecules are found to reach a state of equilibrium, meaning that the molecules are equally distributed throughout the cell, with no area having a higher or lower concentration than any other hence equal. Hypothesis/prediction: For this particular investigation I believe that the lower the concentration of the sugar solution in the test tube the mass of the potato will be greater and the longer the potato cells will be.
Most cell membranes are like that, being permeable to water and some solutes only. Osmosis is therefore the diffusion of water through a partially permeable membrane. The basic principles of diffusion apply here.
Osmosis in Potato Tubes Osmosis: Osmosis is the movement of water molecules through a semi-permeable membrane from a high concentration to a low concentration. Diagram: [IMAGE] [IMAGE] Aim: To see the effects of different concentration of sugar solution on Osmosis in potato tubes. Key factor: In the investigation we change the sugar solution from: 0%-10%-20%-30%-40%-50% this is the independent variable; the dependant variable is the change in mass. Prediction: I predict that all the potato tubes in pure water or low concentration sugar solution will swell because water enters their cells by osmosis.
Osmosis is the passage of water molecules from a weaker solution to a stronger solution through a partially permeable membrane. A partially permeable membrane only allows small molecules to pass through, so the larger molecules remain in the solution they originated in. Solute molecule [IMAGE] [IMAGE] Water molecule [IMAGE] The water molecules move into the more concentrated solution. When water enters a plant cell it swells up. The water pushes against the cell wall and the cell eventually contains all that it can hold.