Title: Diffusion & Osmosis Purpose: To relate solutes passing through a semi-permeable membrane in hypertonic, hypotonic, and isotonic solutions after constructing and simulating model cells in an external environment. Background: Diffusion is the movement of molecules from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration. The movement occurs in and out of the cell. The cells do not have a necessity for energy because of passive transport. The concentrations in the cell will constantly move until they become equal. Osmosis is another type of diffusion that moves water across the cell membrane from an area of lower to an area of higher solute concentration. It occurs when the medium surrounding the cell has a higher water …show more content…
The components of the plasma membrane are the phospholipids, cholesterol, integral, proteins, peripheral proteins, and carbohydrates. Tonicity allows osmosis to be able to move water in and out of cells. Osmolarity is related to the solution’s tonicity which is the total concentration of all solutes in the solution. In tonicity, low osmolarity matches with fewer solute particles per liter of solution and high osmolarity matches with more solute particle per liter of solution. When the different osmolarities are separated by a membrane permeable to water, but not solute, the water will move from low osmolarity to high …show more content…
On cell one, my hypothesis was correct because the protein had a higher concentration which made the water enter into the cell called hypotonic. My hypothesis was wrong on cell two because the sucrose had a higher concentration than the water itself so it was hypotonic. Cell three and four were the one I hypothesized accurately. In cell three, there was water cell put into water which was isotonic. There was glucose put into salt water in cell three which was hypotonic. For cell five, my hypothesis was wrong because the salt itself had a higher concentration than the water which made it hypotonic. All of the hypotonic cells gained more water from the lower