How Osmosis Affects A Potato Chip

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How Osmosis Affects A Potato

Aim: - To See How Osmosis Affects A Potato

Preliminary work

Prediction: -I predict that the weight of the potato in the sugar

solution will decrease and the weight of water will increase. I

predict that the weight of the potato in the sugar solution will

decrease when it reaches 3:1 (salt: water).

In put Variables:

-Molarity

-Size of potato

-Mass of Water

-Molarity of Sugar

-Length of time in the solution

-Temperature of water

Out put variables:

-Weight of potato

Key variables:

-Molarity of sugar. This is a key variable because it has the most

effective outcome because osmosis only works when there are different

molarities in and outside of the potato other wise the diffusion

theory of osmosis wont work.

We are going to keep a fair test by:

- Keeping all the volume of water the same in each test tube

- Keeping the starting weight of the potato the same to begin with

- When removing the excess water of the potato make sure all excess

water is removed but without squeezing any water out of the potato

- Keeping the temperature of the water the same

- Use the same type of potato (grown from the same potato)

We will keep the experiment safe by making sure that all the test tube

racks are in a suitable position so they wont easterly be knocked

over.

Preliminary results

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Sugar Water Time left in

0.44g 0.44 Start

0.43g 0.44 5mins

0.42g 0.45 10mins

0.49g 0.46 15mins

0.38g 0.46 20mins

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The table above shows the weight of the potato.

Prediction

I predict that the weight of the potato in the sugar solution will go

down and the weight of the water will decrease because the water

molecules in the sugar solution are small enough to diffuse through a

semi-permeable membrane in the potato is the high concentration of

water and water will only go through from a high concentration to a

low concentration of water. Water goes into a potato sample because

there is a higher concentration of water out side the potato than

inside of the potato and water will go from a high concentration to a

low concentration therefore the water will go into the potato and...

... middle of paper ...

... to be sure

to show a constant pattern. We didn't have any anomalous results maybe

because we mad sure that we left each potato in the solution an equal

amount of time. Also when we removed access water we were very careful

not to squeeze any water out of the potato other wise it would of made

it an unfair test. To improve reliability and accuracy next time in

the prim nary plan I would make sure that my prediction was detailed

so I would understand everything much clearer in order to get a better

set of results. Also the preliminary experiment next time will be a

lot more accurate in the way that we should take more care in time

that the potato is left in the solution for how ever long of a time it

should be left in. The main plan could be longer and in more detail so

that it is more clear to read and understand. The amount of results

that we got was just about enough to work out and see weather the

prediction was correct. This means that next time we should do more

sets of results to get a more accurate outcome. To help back up this

experiment we could use more chats of graphs showing rate of osmosis

in time and other ways of showing how osmosis affects a potato.

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