Potato Osmosis Lab

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Different Percentages of Sugar Solutions and Their Effect on Potato Weight

Introduction
The experiment was centered on the question: What is the concentration of sugar in a potato? This question is an important one to understanding how we digest potatoes and could be used for nutritional information. In order to find the answer to this question we cut a potato into 5 pieces, placing each in a different solution of sugar and water of about 150ml. Then we waited 30 minutes to see if the effects were hypotonic or hypertonic, giving us a reasonable percentage to how much sugar a potato has naturally. We predicted that the solutions with 0%, 1% and 5% sugar would create a hypotonic environment, increasing the weight of the potato pieces. While the 10% and 15% solutions would create a hypertonic environment, causing the potato to lose weight. This assumes that a potato is naturally between 5% and 10% sugar.

Materials and Methods

Materials
5 Beakers …show more content…

Trim these pieces to 5cm long each. Weigh each piece of potato and record the initial weight. Fill the five beakers with each different solution: 0%, 1%, 5%, 10%, and 15%. Mark which piece is going in which beaker and place all five potato chunks into separate beakers. Let sit for 30 minutes. Remove potato chunks and weigh them, record final weight of each piece. Use the formula; % change = (Final mass- initial mass)/Initial Mass X 100 to get the percentage of change in weight in each potato piece.

Results
The potatoes in solutions 0% through 10% all gained weight, meaning they were in a hypotonic environment. The potato piece in the 15% solution lost weight, meaning its environment was hypertonic. This means that a potato is more than 10% sugar but less than 15%. As you can see on the graph below the estimated sugar content of a potato is around 13%.

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