A potato, too, contains plant cells and hence experiences osmosis.
HYPOTHESIS: The more concentrated the sugar solution, the smaller the potato will become.
APPARATUS:
- Beakers
- 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% sugar solutions.
- Ruler
- Cutting tile
- 1 large potato.
- Peeler
- Scalpel/scissor.
- Test tubes ( test tube rack)
- Stop watch
- Spring balance( digital if possible)
METHOD:
- Peel the potato carefully and cut it into 5 strips of approximately equal length an d width using a scalpel or a scissor. ( make sure they are thick and cut it as fine using the scalpel steadily)
- Using the scalpel again make a deep “ U” shaped dent in each of the potato chips which have been cut.( Make sure they are not too deep and take care that which cutting the dent , the other side is not cut or osmosis will not occur)
- Measure the length of each chip using a ruler accurately.
- Put the 10%, 20% , 30% , 40%, 50% sugar solutions in individual potato chips ( not all in one) , and name the potato chips , in which the individual sugar solutions are poured.
- Start the stop watch.
- After one hour, take out the chips and dry them.
- Measure the length of each chip now.( accurately)
- Record your results in a table.
RESULTS:
CONCLUSION:
My hypothesis was proved correct, as the sugar concentration increases the size of the potato chips decreases, and it also proved that osmosis had occurred. The results also show that the sugar concentration in the potato lies somewhere between 0-10%.
The change is size occurred primarily because of osmosis, and this occurred because the sugar concentration in the first potato was more than that outside therefore it took in water, and hence increased in size, however when the sugar concentration in the solution increased the size of the potato started decreasing as the water concentration inside the potato was more, therefore it gave out water instead of absorbing it, hence it reduced in size after 1 hour.
EVALUATION:
The results we got were decent and somewhat near our expectations however some unintentional errors may have occurred and varied our results thankfully, the hypothesis was proved correct
We may have been subject to human error as we may have not accurately measured the length of each chip, secondly the chips may not have been cut absolutely equally, and the size and shape of the dent to some extent may have been a hindrance to the accuracy of our results.
