Throughout this coursework I will be looking into and experimenting Osmosis. Which will be present in the potato cells, which I am using as part of my experiment.

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Introduction and Plan

Throughout this coursework I will be looking into and experimenting Osmosis. Which will be present in the potato cells, which I am using as part of my experiment.

I will be investigating osmosis, using potato cells, I will be testing to see the effect of osmosis differs in different concentrations of sugar and water.

The Key factor of this experiment which is Osmosis based, is the Sucrose (sugar) solution and the concentration and the effects this key factor has on the Potato cells is important.

The osmosis, which will be taking place, hopefully in my potato cells, is a special kind of diffusion. It involves the movement of water molecules from where they are in high concentration to where they are in a lower concentration.

The way that plants get water into their roots is because the root hairs contain salts e.t.c so the water moves in from the surrounding soil. This tells us the soil has a higher concentration than the plant.

I believe the water will move into the potato cells on some occasions depending on the concentration surrounding the potato, and it will on some occasions it will move out of the potato into the surrounding liquid.

I will be able to tell from my results I will collect, whether the water has moved into the potato or out. Because if the water has moved in, it will make the potato heavier, and if the water has moved out surely the potato will be lighter.

During this experiment I will be changing the concentration of the sugar(sucrose) solution so I will therefore keep the surface area the same. I intend to change the concentration rather than the surface area, because I believe the results I will of collected from the experiment will show if osmosis was present a lot easier than if I did surface area and the results I believe will be clearer.

My prediction

I predict that the higher the sugar concentration that the potato cells are in, then I think they will become smaller and therefore will weigh less. For lower concentration I believe the potato cells will become heavier and therefore which is predictable they will weigh more. I will later refer to my predication when constructing my conclusion and evaluation, in the conclusion I will state whether the results support my predication I have made or not, and why it does or doesn’t.

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Equipment

6 beakers

Sugar Solution

Water

Labels

Potato (cut to the same size)

Knife

Ruler

Scales

Method (M=molar)

  1. Collect all your equipment sensibly
  2. Label all 6 beakers either 0m, 0.2m, 0.4m, 0.6m, 0.8m, 1m.
  3. Prepare and cut the potato into similar lengths, and masses. To end up with 18 bits of potato.
  4. Make sure you have weighed, and measured the length of each potato, and recorded these results.
  5. Put the 18 bits of potato to one side, as you will need these a little later on.
  6. Add ...

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