Biology Lab Report-Osmosis

The first 200 words of this essay...

Shreya Shah

IBD Year 11

Biology Lab Report: Osmosis

Title: Osmosis in a potato chip.

Aim: To investigate the effect of varying concentration of a certain sugar solution on the amount of osmotic activity between the solution and a potato chip of a given size.

Hypothesis: The potato chips left in diluted solutions will increase in size, with the one kept in the solution of maximum dilution increasing in size the most. While the potato chips left in the concentrated solutions will decrease in size, with the one kept in the solution with the highest concentration decreasing in size the most.

Osmosis is the movement of solvent molecules from their region of higher concentration to their region of lower concentration through a semi-permeable membrane, i.e. the molecules move down their concentration gradient. The process continues until the solutions on both sides of the semi- permeable membrane are of the same concentration.

The potato chip cells and all the solutions used in the experiment each have their own concentration. Some solutions may have a higher concentration (lower osmotic potential) than the potato chip cells, while some will be at a lower concentration (higher