The aim of this investigation is to investigate whether or not different concentrations of sucrose solutions would cause a partially permeable membrane

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Osmosis Investigation

Aim: The aim of this investigation is to investigate whether or not different concentrations of sucrose solutions would cause a partially permeable membrane

(in this case a potato chip) to become larger or smaller. I plan to use six different concentrations of sucrose (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5) and distilled water. For each concentration I will be taking down five results and using an average, I will come to the conclusion of how the length of the potato chip has been affected.

Prediction: I predict that in water, the length of the potato will increase. I also predict that the more dilute the solution of sucrose the more the potato will increase. The higher the concentration gets, the more the length of the potato will decrease. The theory I have based my prediction on is known as the ‘osmosis’ theory. The osmosis theory states that movement of water will be from a large dilute solution to a smaller concentrated one. The process will take place through a semi-permeable membrane. Water would go into the potato because there is more water outside the potato than there is inside the potato. This means that the length of the potato would increase due to the water entering the chip. However, sucrose contains less water and therefore water will go towards the sucrose as opposed to going towards the chip.

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Method: The apparatus I used included a ruler, scalpel, core borer, marker, distilled water, sucrose solutions, measuring cylinder and some beakers. Firstly I used my marker and labelled each of the beakers (distilled water, 0.1 sucrose, 0.2 sucrose, 0.3 sucrose, 0.4 sucrose and 0.5 sucrose). Then, using the measuring cylinder, I carefully measured out 20ml of each solution. Next, using the core borer I cut out 30 pieces of potato and using the ruler and scalpel, I cut out potatoes that were 2cm in length. I put five of the 2cm potato pieces in each beaker. They were ...

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