Osmosis of different kinds of potato Introduction: Osmosis is a special kind of diffusion involving water molecules moving through a selectively permeable membrane from a region of higher water potential to a region of lower water potential. It occurs when two solutions are separated by a partially permeable membrane. It is the diffusion of water from a dilute solution into a more concentrated solution through a partially permeable membrane. This process relates to many functions that maintain life. In relation to blood and plant cells, blood cells placed in pure distilled water will swell and burst because animal cells don't have cell walls to prevent them swelling. When red blood cells are placed into a salt solution, they will shrink as water passes out of the cell by osmosis. The animal may die from blocked blood flow while the plant may wilt and die. In our body, water diffuses across cell membranes through osmosis. The aim of this experiment is to look for the effect of changing the concentration of sucrose on the rate of osmosis in cylinders of different …show more content…
The solutions prepared for the experiment is 40% sucrose solution and distilled water is used to dilute the solution to 20%, 10% and 0% sucrose solution. Measure 20ml of each solution per boiling tube, 9boiling tubes per solution and 3 tubes of the same solution per type of potato, this will lead to 36 boiling tubes needed in total. With the 7mm cork, cut the potatoes into cylinders, 12 cylinders per potato is needed, and with a scalpel cut the potato cylinders into equal length of 3cm. Before beginning the experiment, measuring the mass of each potato cylinder is needed to find the change in mass of the potatoes after osmosis. Start the timer for 30 minutes after placing all cylinders into the boiling tubes, after 30 minutes measure and record the mass of each potato cylinder after the