Finding The water potential of Celeriac - Implementing

The method chosen to find the water potential of the celeriac was to find the concentration of the solution where osmosis would not take place and there would be no change in mass. This is because the solution will be the same concentration as the celeriac and both of the will therefore has the same water potential.

To carry out the experiment a range of solutions were made. The solutions were made in boiling tubes; each boiling tube had 20cm³ of solution in it. Two cylinders of known masses and different lengths were then put into the boiling tubes. The celeriac was then left in these solutions for more than 24 hours so there was adequate time for the osmosis to take place.

The celeriac was then removed from the boiling tubes and was weighed. The celeriac cylinders were prepared by a cork borer. All the cylinders were bored from the same region of the Celeriac. This was all round the Celeriac about 2cm from the edge. Two different lengths of cylinders were used so that one can be identified from the other and so that they have a different surface area: volume ratio. Masses were found using a top pan balance.

Table to show how the different solutions were made

Risk Assessment

Table Showing Change in ...