Find out what type of things affect the rate of osmosis in plants for example, temperature and time.

This essay hasn't yet been marked by one of our teachers

You can view 35 essays on Life Processes & Cells that have been Marked by Teachers

The first 200 words of this essay...

Biology coursework, Osmosis

Aim

To find out what type of things affect the rate of osmosis in plants for example, temperature and time.

I will do this using a piece of potato submerged in different amounts of sugar solution and record any changes in mass.

Prediction

Osmosis is the movement of water molecules across a partially permeable membrane from a region of high water concentration to a region of low concentration. Therefore I predict that the potato in the highest sugar solution will have the lowest water concentration and the weakest sugar solution will have the highest water concentration. This is due to the fact that in high sugar solutions the water leaves the cells due to osmosis making the potato lighter.

Background

Plant cell Animal cell

Osmosis:

Osmosis is just a form of diffusion it means the movement of water molecules across a partially permeable membrane from a region of HIGH water concentration to a region of LOW water concentration.

Osmosis makes plant cells swell up if they are surrounded by a weak solution and they become turgid. This is useful to the plant cells as it