Osmosis and diffusion experiments

The first 200 words of this essay...

Title : osmosis and diffusion

ntroduction:

Cells have kinetic energy. This causes the molecules of the cell to move around and bump into each other. Diffusion is one result of this molecular movement. Diffusion is the random movement of molecules from an area of higher concentration to areas of lower concentration. Osmosis is a special kind of diffusion where water moves through a selectively permeable membrane (a membrane that only allows certain molecules to diffuse though). Diffusion or osmosis occurs until dynamic equilibrium has been reached. This is the point where the concentrations in both areas are equal and no net movement will occur from one area to another.

If two solutions have the same solute concentration, the solutions are said to be isotonic. If the solutions differ in concentration, the area with the higher solute concentration is hypertonic and the area with the lower solute concentration is hypotonic. Since a hypotonic solution contains a higher level of solute, it has a high solute potential and low water potential. This is because water potential and solute potential are inversely proportional. A hypotonic solution would have a high water potential and a low solute potential.