Coursework on osmosis
Aim: To investigate how the concentration on sugar affects the length of the potato.
Scientific Knowledge
Osmosis is the movement from a higher concentration of water molecules to a lower concentration of water molecules. It is a special kind of diffusion, which only occurs when there is a partially permeable membrane; this partially permeable membrane only allows substances like water to move through it. An example of this would be like this
As you can see in the diagram above the water molecules move down the concentration gradient from high to low concentration until a new equilibrium is established.
This is because there are more water molecules in the dilute sugar solution then in the concentrated sugar solution; therefore the dilute sugar solution has a higher concentration of water molecules. Thus water molecules will travel from the higher concentration of water to the lower concentration of water, which is the more concentrated sugar solution.
