Investigating the Effect That Concentration of Sucrose Solution Has On the Osmosis of Potato Chips.

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/02Katie Muston

Investigating the Effect That Concentration of Sucrose Solution Has On the Osmosis of Potato Chips

Introduction

        During this investigation I am going to investigate how varying the concentration of sucrose affects the rate of osmosis on potato chips. I will do this by finding and recording the length of each potato chip before and after it is placed in sucrose solution for a certain length of time. Then I will calculate the percentage change in length of potato chips at each concentration and I will take three readings in order to calculate the average.  Using this information I will plot a graph and this will then be analyzed. From this I will be able to draw an accurate conclusion.

Variables and Key Factors

These are the variables and key factors that I will need to consider:

1) Solution concentration

2) Solution volume

3) Duration of experiment

4) Temperature

5) Conditions which experiment is performed in

6) Dimensions of potato chip

In order for this to be a fair test some aspects of the experiment will have to be kept the same whilst one key variable is changed. I have chosen to vary the concentration of sucrose solution. Hopefully this will give me a good range of results from which I can make a conclusion. If any of the variables are not kept constant then it will not be a fair test. For example if one of the potato chips was slightly longer than the others, the surface area of the chip would be larger and there would be more space for osmosis to occur. It is very difficult to keep the temperature constant as room temperature fluctuates very slightly but I will keep my experiment in the same room.

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Prediction

        I predict that as the concentration of the sucrose solution increases, the length of the chip will decrease. My prediction is based on the theory of osmosis. Osmosis is the movement of water or any other molecules of solution from a region in which they are highly concentrated to a region in which they are less concentrated. This movement must take place across a partially permeable membrane such as a cell wall, which allows smaller molecules, e.g. water, to pass through but not larger molecules. The molecules will continue to diffuse until the area ...

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