The Effects of Osmotic Diffusion on Cells

The experiment that we have done is meant to prove that the process of osmosis does exist
in a cell, The process of osmosis is a process where the molecules of a cells are trying to be in
a state of equilibrium, meaning it is trying to find a balance in the proportions of the insides
and the outside of the cell, this process is determined by the condition on which that cell is
in, if there are a high concentration of solutes than water inside of the cell and a high
concentration of water outside of the cell then the solutes and the water will move outwards
or inwards to the cell until the concentration of it is balance, but of course it depends on the
condition of what the outside is like, if there are a high concentration of water outside, then
it will move into the cell which as a result will then make the cell expand, but if there are a
high concentration of solutes outside the waters inside will move out to try and reach
equilibrium, therefore shrinking the cell, instead of using a cell for the experiment we used a
potato as a representation for the cell, in this experiment we used a potato to represent the
cell,

The experiment that we have done was to use two pieces of potatoes that have been halved,
at first we will record the weight of the potatoes then one part of the potato were to be put
in a beaker filled with tap water that has a high concentration of salt, and another part of that
potato were put in a beaker filled with normal tap water, the two potatoes were put inside
of the beakers for a period of one hour, afterwards the two potatoes will then be re-measured
by weight and then compare the data of the potatoes from before they were put into the
beakers and after they were put into them, we believe that the potato that were put into the
beaker filled with high concentration of salt would be shrunk, therefore proving the process
of osmosis within the cell or in this case the potatoes.

Materials:
1. Potato
2. Knife
3. 2 Beakers
4. Glass stirring rod
5. Graduated cylinder
6. Salt
7. Water
8. Weight scale

The Steps :

1. First slice a potato in half with a knife

2. Then measure the weight of one halve of the potato
3. And then measure the weight of the other potato
4. Then wash and prepare the two beakers that is about to be used for the experiment
5. Then pour 200 ml of water into a graduated cylinder
6. Then pour the 200 ml of water from the graduated cylinder into one of the beaker
 7. Then add 3 ½ tbsp. of salt (50g) of salt into the beaker without the 200 ml of water
8. Then pour 150 ml of water into a graduated cylinder
9. Then mix the salt and water filled beaker with a glass stirring rod
10. Make sure the salt has dissipated into the water completely
11. Then pour the 150m ml of water from the graduated cylinder into the beaker that
has been filled with salt
12. Then put both potatoes separately into the beakers
13. Wait for 50-60 minutes
14. Pour back the water from the salt concentrated water beaker into the graduated
cylinder to record the water that has been in it is still the same
15. Pour back the water from the normal water beaker into the graduated cylinder to
record the water that has been in it is still the same
16. Get the potatoes out of the beakers
17. Re-measure the weight of the potatoes
18. Compare the measurements to the previous measurements that have been made
before they were put into the beakers

Before
Mass
Salt 50gr
Salt Water 150ml
Normal Water 200ml
Potato in Salt water 90.5 gr
Potato in Normal Water 69.6 gr

Before the water has been mixed with the salt it has the mass of 150ml and before the normal
water is put into the beaker it has the mass of 200ml and then the potatoes which have been
halved has been measured and the potato that is about to be put in salt water has a mass of
90.5 gr and the potato that is about to be put into the normal water filled beaker has a mass
of 69,6 gr while the salt weighs over 50 gr.

After
Mass
Salt -
Salt Water 165ml
Normal Water 194ml
Potato in Salt Water 68,2 gr
Potato in Normal Water 70,3 gr

After the potatoes time in the beaker was over we then recorded the mass of the water and
the water that is filled with salt has a mass of 165ml and the water that has nothing added to
has a mass of 194ml, then the potato that has been staying in the salt water has a mass of
68.6 gr and the potato that has been staying in the normal water has a mass of 70.3 gr, while
the salt is none because it it has been mixed with the water.
 The Result
The result of this experiment has shown that the mass in the potato that was put into the
beaker filled with high concentration of salt has then shrunk in mass, from originally weighing
90,5 gr to 68,2 gr, while the potato that has been put into the beaker that was filled with
normal water has then grown in mass, from the original weight of 69,6 gr to the weight of
70,3 gr, although it may seem miniscule the change in weight has proven that osmosis has
taken place within the potato, therefore proving that our hypothesis was right since we
believe that the potato in the salt water would shrink because of osmosis.

Conclusion
The conclusion that we have come to is that our hypothesis was right since we believe that
the potato that were put into the salt concentrated water would shrink, because of the
solutes that were much more heavily concentrated outside of the potato, since there were
much more solutes outside of the potato , the water that was inside of the potato would get
out of the potato to try and balance the amount of solutes and water which is the
independent variable, therefore the amount of water that was in the potato decreases and
eventually decreasing the mass in the potato which is the dependent variable, although we’ve
predicted that the potato that was inside of the salt concentrated water to shrunk, we didn’t
thought of the amount of mass would change in the one put into the normal water in our
original hypothesis, since we only thought about the change in the one beaker that has been
tampered with an outside object in this case the salt, while the potato in the beaker that has
only normal water clearly has changed because of the solute molecules inside the cells coming
out while the water molecule comes into the cells, therefor changing the mass of the potato
into heavier than before.