Investigation to Calculate the Water Potential of Potato Tissue.

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Investigation to Calculate the Water Potential of Potato Tissue

As part of the investigation to determine the water potential of potato tissue in varying concentrations of sucrose a simple procedure was followed.

Firstly, 25cm³ of sucrose solution was placed in each boiling tube. In each of the five boiling tubes, there were different concentrations of the sucrose solution containing either from the following of molar solutions: 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1.0M.

Each boiling tube was labelled with its particular concentration of sucrose.

Then the same cork borer was used to prepare 5 cylinders of potato, which had been cut to the same length of 4cm to minimise the difference in mass between the potato chips for greatest accuracy and fairness.

In turn, each cylinder was weighed and placed into the boiling tube and to make sure which potato tissue went in what boiling tube we recorded the masses of the cylinders next to which boiling tube they were placed in.

The potato cylinders were placed one by one for an hour at three minute intervals.

After this period, the cylinders were removed from the boiling tubes and excess liquid was removed by blotting them lightly. They were then weighed and then the results were recorded.

After the implementing of the experiment, I got these results.

Table 1: Mass difference of potato tissue in varying concentration of Sucrose solution.

With the above table using the concentration of sucrose concentration against the percentage mass gain, a graph was plotted.

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The second graph plotted with the use of a table showing solute potentials of given sucrose solutions at 20 ºC.

Interpretation of Results:

Graph 1 shows the percentage gain of mass of the potato tissue when five potato cylinders were placed in five different concentrations of sucrose. The graphline is a steep straight line sloping downwards with a negative gradient. There is a linear relationship between the percentage mass gain and the sucrose concentration. When the molarity ...

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This is a well written report that covers the necessary information for this investigation. 1. The report needs to have subheadings to organize the starting sections. 2. The starting sections should not be written in the past tense and should not have running commentaries. 3. The conclusion is the strongest section but the sources of information need to be referenced. 4. The evaluation includes some good suggestions. ***