Explanation of Osmosis and Diffusion

Explanation of Osmosis and Diffusion

“Osmosis is the passage of water from a region of high water

concentration through a semi-permeable membrane to a region of low

water concentration, which will then become equal.”

Diffusion, although at first may seem insignificant in nature, plays

quite a major part. The most obvious example would be in cells, plant

and animal alike. They have partially permeable membrane in order to

let in things like water, and to prevent unwanted big chemicals such

as sucrose from entering. However, diffusion only takes places where

there is a diffusion gradient i.e. a high concentration in one place

and low in the other, moving down the diffusion gradient. Sometimes

there are things which have to work against diffusion e.g. plants who

need to absorb mineral ions from the soil, even though the

concentration of ions is much higher in the plant that in the soil.

The process of absorbing these minerals is called Active Transport.

Hypothesis:

Using all the evidence in the preliminary work, I predict that when

distilled water is surrounding the potato after a period of time, the

potato will become turgid, and therefore become, stiffened, hard and

enlarged, as the water concentration in the beaker would be much

higher than the water in the potato.

I also predict that as more molars of sucrose solution after a certain

point is used, the potato will become more flaccid, and therefore

become more soft, floppy, and smaller, as the water concentration in

the potato would be higher than the water concentration in the beaker.

I think this will happen because the lower the concentration of water

in the sucrose solution there is, the higher the water concentration

in the potato, and the more comparatively higher pressure there is in

the potato, the faster osmosis would take place. This would give me a

smaller potato after a set period of time, compared to a weaker

solution, which would be slower, and make the potato less small over

the same period.