Egg Osmosis Lab Report

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The semipermeable membrane surrounding a cell is called the cell membrane. The cell membrane plays a major role in controlling what is able to come in and out of the cell. The traits of the cell membrane are important in passive transportation. Passive transportation is the movement of materials into, out of or within a cell that does not require energy from the cell. A type of passive transportation is osmosis. Osmosis is the diffusion of water into and out of cells from an area of higher concentration to an area of lower concentration. In this lab, a cell is represented by an egg. The cell, or egg, is then placed into three types of different solutions to evaluate the effects of osmosis. In the first solution the egg was placed into vinegar for two days. When it was placed in the vinegar, the egg got larger and gained weight. In the beginning of the experiment, the untouched egg weighed 56.7 grams, but after being submerged into vinegar, the egg weighed 65.6 grams. The egg had a 15.7% increase in mass from the original, untouched egg to vinegar. Water went into the egg making it a hypotonic solution. The egg was more concentrated than the solute, so the water moved into the egg until it reached osmotic balance. We observed that the egg, that used to have a hard, white shell …show more content…

When it was placed into the corn syrup, the egg got significantly smaller and lost weight. When 24 hours passed, we took the egg submerged in corn syrup out and weighed it. It weighed only 36 grams and had a 45.1% decrease in mass from vinegar to corn syrup. The egg now looked dark yellow and as if a rice roll was surrounding it. Water moved out of the egg making it a hypertonic solution. The egg was less concentrated than the solute, so the water moved out of the egg until it reached osmotic balance. Overall, we can conclude that when a semi permeable cell is placed in a hypertonic solution, water will move out of the

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