How Does a Change in the Concentration of the Surrounding Solution Affect Osmosis in Potato Cells?

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How Does a Change in the Concentration of the Surrounding Solution Affect Osmosis in Potato Cells

Plan

Osmosis – osmosis is the net movement of water through a semi permeable membrane from an area of water where the water is purer to an area where the water is less pure (purer meaning that the water has less other molecules other than water in it)

I have to think of an experiment to see how a change in the concentration of the surrounding solution affects osmosis in potato cells, I will do an experiment which measures the amount of water lost or gained before an osmotic balance is reached (when the water leaving the potato is equal to the water entering the potato because the concentration of water in the cells and outside the cells are the same) in different concentration solutions of sucrose (ordinary sugar as in granulated sugar).

The experiment will be. Make solutions ranging from 0.1-9 molar of sucrose. Use a cork borer to cut similar pieces of potato. Weigh the potato so you can measure the change in weight. Put the samples in a boiling tube with a solution for an equal amount of time then weigh the pieces of potato and use the percentage.

The problem with using weight is that the potatoes surface area mass of potato, not water and more factors also affect osmosis apart from just weight of the piece of potato and water is easily lost or gained before weighing while being held in the air.

Points of accuracy that need to be looked at.

  • Use the same cork borer
  • Put in the same area to soak the potato (so it is under the same conditions)
  • Same volume of solution
  • Roughly the same surface area
  • In the solution for the same amount of time
  • The solution was made in bulk to make the concentration more accurate.
  • Used the same potato so that the potato pieces will have the same properties as each other (same concentration of water in the cells).
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Also, safety is important, when cutting with the scalpel and the cork borer a tile was used to cut on so damage to the bench or fingers is less likely.

Prediction

                       

 

I predict that the graph will show a small slope at the top and at the bottom because at the top there would be the cell stopping taking water at the top because no more can get in (turgidity) and at the bottom the cells have ...

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