EXPERIMENT 5

MOVEMENT OF WATER IN AND OUT OF A CELL

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Title:
Movement of water in and out of potato cell sap through osmosis.
Introduction:
The purpose of the experiment is to observe the movement of water in and out of the
potato cell sap in different molarities of sucrose solution.
Osmosis is the movement of water molecules from a region of higher concentration of
water to a region of lower concentration of water through a selectively permeable membrane.
All cells have selectively permeable membrane which allows water molecules to diffuse in or out
of the cell. [1]
When potato strip is placed in a hypertonic solution, where the concentration of solute
in the sucrose solution is higher than the concentration of solute in the cell sap, water molecules
in the cell sap of potato will move from the potato to the sucrose solution until it reached
equilibrium. This causes the potato strip to become shorter and flaccid.
When potato strip is placed in a hypotonic solution, where theconcentration of solute in
the cell sap of potatois higher than the concentration of solute in the sucrose solution, water
molecules in the sucrose solutionwill move into thecell sap of potato until it reached equilibrium.
This causes the potato strip to become longer and turgid.
When potato strip is placed in a isotonic solution, where the concentration of solute in
the sucrose solution has same concentration of solutein the cell sap of potato. There will be no
net movement of water across the cell membrane because, water crosses the cell membrane in
both directions, but the amount coming in is the same as the amount going out, so there is no
net movement of water. The cell will stay the same size.[2]


references:
[1]http://www.slideshare.net/XAB00DX/osmosis-lab-report
[2] http://biology.about.com/od/cellularprocesses/ss/diffusion_3.htm [4 Sep. 14]
EXPERIMENT 5
MOVEMENT OF WATER IN AND OUT OF A CELL
[Type text] Page 2