Osmosis Lab

1094 Words3 Pages

Abstract

In the Biology Laboratory session, I worked with two partners on Osmosis. It means the diffusion of water across a selectively permeable membrane, which is the plasma membrane in a biological system. The purpose of this activity is to find the weight of potato cores in two separate beakers. One beaker contains distilled water and other one is 10% NaCl. Before performing the laboratory test, we made two hypotheses. The first one is the weight of potato cores in 10% NaCl will decrease in gram. Second is the weight of potato cores in distilled water will be the same in gram. We performed it and recorded the weight every five minutes for thirty minutes. After we completed the activity, we looked at the table. Our hypothesis was testable. However, the first one was proved to be corrected while the second proved to be not corrected. According to website www.spartechsoftware.com, through osmosis, water naturally moves from areas of low salt concentrations to areas of high salt concentrations. Adding salt to the water creates a higher salt concentration in the water in the dish than in the water contained in the potato. Consequently, the water in a potato that is soaking in salt water will migrate out of the potato leaving a rather disgusting, mushy spud.

Introduction

When my group and I started doing the laboratory activity, we asked ourselves, “What’s the purpose of doing this activity?” The purpose of doing this activity is to do testing on weight of potato cores in both distilled water and 10% NaCl. NaCl is a salt. Not only just that, the other objective is to calculate the percent difference in weight. Before I began this activity, I read the laboratory manual seven to make sure that I know what I am supposed to do. I a...

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...stilled water did not support my result because it did not stay the same in gram. I wondered why did that happened. Both inside and outside of potato is water. I could say that it is stimulate because it went up and down. Calculating the percent difference was the big factor in comparison of both cores in distilled water and 10% NaCl.

Citations:

1) spartechsoftware.com. Copyright 1997-2005, SparTech Software [updated: n/a] Available from http://www.spartechsoftware.com

http://www.spartechsoftware.com/reeko/Experiments/ExpSpinelesPotatoes.htm

2) herbarium.desu.edu. © 2006 Arthur Tucker [updated: n/a] Available from http://herbarium.desu.edu

http://herbarium.desu.edu/pfk/page17/page18/page19/page19.html

3) Biology Laboratory Manual, 7th edition. Copyright 2009. Laboratory 7; The Passive Transport System. Gallaudet University: Biology Department; 2009. P. 67

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