Based on the data and the recorded observations, my hypothesis is correct. When a solution is hypotonic, this causes the cell to swell, because there are more water molecules on the inside of the cell. If positive feedback continues, the cell will eventually burst. When a solution is hypertonic, this causes the cell to shrink, because there are more water molecules on the outside of the cell. Over time, the cell will start to function poorly (“Difference between Hypertonic, Hypotonic, Isotonic Solutions”). Therefore, the cell needs to maintain its internal environment through osmosis. In a hypotonic solution, osmosis allows water molecules to move from the inside of the cell to the outside, so as to keep the concentrations balanced. In a hypertonic …show more content…
Corn syrup has a very high density due to the high concentration of sugar molecules. Because the sugar molecules is too large, it cannot pass through the semipermeable membrane of the egg. As a result, only the water molecules from the egg can move to the outside. These water molecules pass through the membrane of the egg into the corn syrup until the concentration of water molecules is balanced on both sides. This is evident from the data, which states that the weight of the egg decreased from 3 to 0.5 ounces. Also, the pictures above show how the egg changed from being tight and solid to being flexible. The observations also say that the egg felt like a water balloon and was full of water inside. Overall, the egg greatly shrunk in size. Finally, when the egg was placed in corn syrup, it floated on the surface of the solution. This was because the egg floated in solutions hypertonic to its inside. This also shows how much water was transferred from the egg to the sugar solution. The higher the percentage of corn syrup was, the faster the rate of osmosis was. As a result, the egg placed in 75% corn syrup, 25% filtered water had the lightest weight (0.5 oz), while the egg placed in 25% corn syrup, 75% filtered water weighed 2 oz. Overall, the importance of this lab was to understand the process of osmosis and how it differs depending on the type of