Investigating the Amount of Sag in Potato Chips Due to Osmosis

Investigating the Amount of Sag in Potato Chips Due to Osmosis

Analysis

A clear trend can be identified when looking at the graph that shows

the class means, the higher the molarity of the solution, the more the

potato chip which has been soaked in that solution sags. This trend is

shown as a result of osmosis and the movement of water in and out of

the potato cells. When the potato chip has been left in pure water its

cells have become turgid, and as a result of this has a very small

amount of sag is measured. The cells have become turgid because, due

to osmosis, water has been transferred from the solution in to the

potato cells. This transfer happened because the potato cells had a

much lower water potential than the surrounding water, which, being

pure, had a water potential of 0kpa. The potato cells have a lower Y

due to molecules of solute inside the potato cells. This imbalance

leads to movement of water from the solution into the potato cells in

an effort to reach an equilibrium. This diagram below gives a basic

visual representation of the process of osmosis when the potato chip

is placed in pure water.

[IMAGE]

Solute molecule

[IMAGE]

[IMAGE]

[IMAGE]

Water flows form the area of higher Y, the pure water on the right, to

the area of lower Y, the potato cell on the left, in an effort to

reach equilibrium.

0kpa -ve kpa

On the other hand, when the potato chip has been left in a solution of

a high molarity the level of sag measured is very high; this is

because of the high concentration of solute outside the potato cells

leads to movement of water from inside the potato cells t...

... middle of paper ...

...easuring the sag of chips due to osmosis, the

length change of potato chips due to osmosis could be measured. This

would be much easier to measure and therefore would improve the

accuracy of the results. One other improvement that could be made to

the experiment would be to increase the number of repeats, this would

improve the accuracy of the overall averages.

Despite the high standard deviation values of the results I feel that

they accurate enough to support a firm conclusion. The fairly high

number of repeats should have helped to smooth out the anomalies found

in the data. The trend shown is what I was expecting to see, and this

helps to show that the results were fairly accurate. Despite the

potential errors and anomalies I have outlined, the graph produced

from the data is good enough to support my conclusion.