Investigate which salt solution will keep the potato chip freshest for longest.

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Potato Chip Experiment

Aim:                

Investigate which salt solution will keep the potato chip freshest for longest.

Prediction:        

In my experiment, I am going to be using the salt solutions:

  1. Om.                
  2. O.2m.
  3. O.4m.
  4. O.6m.
  5. O.8m.
  6. 1m.

We will be experimenting to which salt solution will keep the chip freshest, for longest.

        In the experiment I predict that the salt solution most likely to keep the potato chip freshest will be the O.2m salt solution.  I believe this because the only piece of information we were given was that the red blood cell concentration was O.25m, and from that piece of information, I believe that the O.2m salt solution will keep the potato chip freshest for longest.                                          I think that O.2m will be the best solution because anything less than the red blood cell concentration O.25m for example Om, will let water into the cell and make the potato chip soggy, and anything higher than O.25, for example O.4m, will let water out of the cell, therefore the potato chip will shrivel and go black.

        

Scientific Theory:

        

In the experiment the salt solution will affect the freshness of the potato chip.  The reason for this is ‘Osmosis’, which is defined as the net movement of water or any other solution’s molecules from a region in which there is a high concentration to a region of low concentration.

Solution + Solvent                   Solution

Salt        +  Water                     Salt water solution

This movement takes place across a partially permeable membrane such as a cell wall, which lets smaller molecules such as water through but not larger molecules.        The molecules will continue to diffuse until the area in which the molecules are found reaches a state of equilibrium, meaning that the molecules are randomly distributed throughout an object, with no area having a higher or lower concentration than any other.

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Before Osmosis

A partially permeable membrane separates two solutions.  The solute molecules are too big to pass through the pores in the membrane, but the eater molecules are small enough.

Picture a

                A                                B

                                

After Osmosis

The two solutions are of equal solution concentration, as the arrow shows from picture a more molecules of water moved from A to B, so the net movement of water was from A to B, raising the level of solution in B and lowering it in A.

Picture b

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