I am going to investigate the effect of the concentration of sucrose solution on Osmosis in potato cells. I am going to do this by setting up an experiment in which I can alter dependant variables and independent variables.

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Biology Coursework, Osmosis In Potato Tissue                 Elaine Mostert

Osmosis in potatoes

To investigate the effect of concentration of sucrose solution on

 Osmosis in potato tissue

Plan

I am going to investigate the effect of the concentration of sucrose solution on Osmosis in potato cells. I am going to do this by setting up an experiment in which I can alter dependant variables and independent variables.

Factors that would affect osmosis in the investigation are:

  • Surface area of the potato. The larger the surface area of the potato the more water it can absorb. There will be more cells to absorb more water.
  • Concentration of the sucrose solution. The more concentrated the solution is the less water there is in the solution. The less concentrated the solution is the more water there is in the solution.
  • Volume of sucrose solution. The volume of sucrose solution must remain the same throughout the experiment for the results to be fair.
  • Time. The longer the tissue is kept in the solution the more time osmosis has to take place. If the tissue is kept in the solution for too long the tissue will be damaged and results will be hard to obtain. But if too short, osmosis will not have enough time to take place.
  • Temperature. The warmer the temperature that the experiment is done in, the more energy the particles have, so they will move around in the test tube faster and osmosis will take place faster.

Factor that I am going to investigate.

I am going to investigate osmosis in a potato. The factor I am going to investigate is the concentration of the sucrose solution that the potato will be placed in. The concentrations of sucrose in the solution will be; 0.0M, 0.2M, 0.4M, 0.6M, 0.8M, 1.0M.  I want to find out what happens to the potatoes when they have higher or lower concentrations of sucrose and water. I want to find out the cell sap concentration of potato tissue.

               My hypothesis.

I predict that; as the concentration of the sucrose in a solution goes up from 0.0M to 1.0M, there will be potatoes that are hard because they contain a lot of water, to potatoes that are soft because they lack water.

I predict this because:

In 0.0M solution. When osmosis takes place in the potatoes, which are in a solution of low concentration of sucrose (which is a high concentration of water), the water molecules in the solution will move by osmosis through the selectively permeable cell membrane into the potato. The water molecules will move into the cells of the potatoes because osmosis is the movement of water from a high concentration of water to an area of low concentration of water. So therefore the water molecules in the solution will move through the cell membrane into the cells, which are less concentrated in water than the solution that the potato is in. The water molecules have then moved from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration. These potatoes will be hard and firm because they contain more water than they did before. These potatoes will also weigh more because the water molecules they have absorbed have made them increase in weight. The cells are Turgid. The cells cannot possibly increase in weight anymore than they have already, because the cells will burst.

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In 1.0M solution. When osmosis takes place in the potatoes, which are in a solution of high concentration of sucrose, the water molecules in the potatoes will move by osmosis through the selectively permeable cell membrane into the solution of low concentration of water. The water molecules will move out of the cells of the potatoes into the solution. This happens because osmosis is the movement of water molecules from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration. So therefore the water molecules in the potatoes will move through the selectively permeable cell membrane out of the ...

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