The Effectiveness of Osmosis

The Effectiveness of Osmosis

What osmosis is?

Osmosis is the net movement of a solvent through a semi permeable

membrane (as of a living cell) into a solution of higher solute

concentration that tends to equalize the concentrations of solute on

the two sides of the membrane

This means that…

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If you were to put cell into liquid containing water one of three

things will happen.

· If the medium surrounding the cell has a higher water concentration

than the cell (a very dilute solution) the cell will gain water by

osmosis.

Water molecules are free to pass across the cell membrane in both

directions, but more water will come into the cell than will leave.

The net (overall) result is that water enters the cell. The cell is

likely to swell up.

· If the medium is exactly the same water concentration as the cell

there will be no net movement of water across the cell membrane.

Water crosses the cell membrane in both directions, but the amount

going in is the same as the amount going out, so there is no overall

movement of water. The cell will stay the same size.

· [IMAGE]If the medium has a lower concentration of water than the

cell (a very concentrated solution) the cell will lose water by

osmosis.

Again, water crosses the cell membrane in both directions, but this

time more water leaves the cell than enters it. Therefore the cell

will shrink.

Aim

To find out whether osmosis affects potato cells in different

concentrations of water, if so how if affects them.

Hypothesis

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I predict that if the concentration of the solution is greater than

that of the potato then the length of the potato chip will decrease.

My reasoning behind this is that if the concentration of glucose is

higher in the solution, then the water will leave the potato to dilute

the solution and leave the potato with less water and a reduced