How does temperature affect the permiability of cell memmbrane?

Equipment:

• Raw Beetroot
• Size 4 cork borer
• White tile
• Knife
• Ruler
• Plastic beaker about 250 cm
• Forceps
• 2 boiling test tube tracks
• 9 boiling tubes
• Thermometer (one per water bath)
• Colorimeter
• Cuvettes
• Stop clock
• Distilled water
• Pipette for measuring 2  cm
• Small measuring cylinders
• Waterproof marking pen
• Water baths at 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 °C

Methods:

• Cut sections from a single beetroot using a size 4 cork borer.
• Cut eight 1 cm length slices from these sections.
• Place the section in a beaker of distilled water.
• Leave overnight to wash away excess dye.
• Next day, place eight labelled boiling tubes each containing 5 cm   distilled water baths at 0°C, 10°C, 20°C, 30°C, 40°C, 50°C, 60°C, 70°C and 80°C.
• Leave for 5 minutes until the water reaches the required temperature.
• Place one of the beetroot sections into each of the boiling tubes.
•  Leave for 10 minutes in the water baths.
• Remove the beetroot sections and shake the tubes to disperse the dye in the water/solution.
• Switch on the colorimeter and set it to read % absorbance.
• Set the filter dial to the blue/green filter.
• Using, a pipette, accurately measure 2 cm   distilled water into a cuvette.
•  Place the cuvette into the colorimeter, making sure that the light is shining through the smooth sides.
•   Adjust the colorimeter to read zero absorbance for clear water.
• Do not alter the setting during the experiment.
• Place 2 cm   of the dye solution into the colorimeter cuvette and take a reading for absorbency.
• Repeat the readings for all temperatures.
• Present your results in an appropriate way.
• Identify any trends or patterns in your results.
• Explain any trends or patterns, supporting your statements with evidence from your data using biological knowledge.
• Describe how you could have improved this experiment to give more reliable results.
• Plan and investigation into how alcohol concentration affects membrane permeability.

Results Table:  

Conclusion:

             The results show that temperatures affect on the permeability of the beetroots cell membrane increases as the temperarture increases. You leave the beetroot in each water baths at different temperature for 10 minutes. As the temperature increase there is also an increase in the absorbency.

As you can see in the result table when the temperature is 0°C the absorbency is 0%. But once it reaches 80°C the absorbency is 82%. This shows a massive increase in the absorbency.