Osmosis GCSE Biology

The first 200 words of this essay...

The effects of osmosis on potatoes placed in different salt concentration

Introduction:

Osmosis is a movement of water across a semi-permeable membrane. This may only happen when there is a difference in concentration between the two sides of the membrane. The water moves from low concentrations to high concentrations. That is because the low concentrated area tries to dilute the opposite via osmosis.

The effects osmosis has on a cell are either that it becomes turgid and hard as water enters the cell or it becomes dehydrated (this is called plasmolysing in plant cells) as water leaves the cell and the solution enters. There is a change of mass, volume, texture and length.

Aim:

The aim is to investigate the effects of varying concentrations of a salt solution on the amount of osmotic activity between the solution and a potato of a given size.

Osmosis:

Process of Osmosis

Osmosis is the process of the flow of one constituent of a solution (in this case salt) through a membrane while the other constituents are blocked and unable to pass through the membrane. Experimentation is necessary to determine which membranes permit selective flow, or osmosis,