Research Question
What impact will solutions of different concentration have on the percentage change in the masses of potato tubes?
Variables
Independent Variables
The concentrations of sucrose in the solution (M per mL): 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
The control:
Water with no salt/sugar added (therefore 0.0 M per mL)
Dependent Variables:
The percentage change in the mass of the potato tubes after bathing them in sucrose solutions of different concentrations
Controlled Variables
The variable
How it was maintained
Potato tubes By using the same potato to cut out all the potato tubes By using a potato corer of the diameter of 5mm By cutting the potato tubes into 3 cm each using the same ruler
Water used By using the water samples
…show more content…
An isotonic solution has the osmolarity as a tissue, hypertonic solution has a higher osmolarity than a tissue, and a hypotonic solution has a lower osmolarity than a tissue. Therefore, soaking a tissue sample in hypotonic and hypertonic and isotonic solutions can help in determining the osmolarity of tissue. This is because in a hypertonic solution, the concentration of the solute is higher in the solution than inside the tissue, so water moves from an area of high water potential (tissue) to an area of lower water potential (solution), down a concentration gradient, through a partially permeable membrane. In a hypotonic solution, the opposite happens; water moves into the tissue because it has a higher solute concentration. At an isotonic solution, there will be a 0% change in mass because, because there will be no net movement of water, and it would be therefore, the osmolarity of the cytoplasm of the potato …show more content…
This indicates that all of the solutions have been hypertonic in relationship to the potato tubes. The concentration of the solute (salt or sugar) has been higher in them than the concentration of the solute in the solutions that we have tested them in. Nonetheless, some solutions have been a closer match to the osmolarity of the potato tubes than others, such as 0.6 (M per mL) which has caused the tissue to lose -3.6% of its weigh only, compared to 1.0 (M per mL), which has caused the potato to lose -36.6% of its weight. Therefore, the net movement of water in the solutions that displayed a bigger loss in the weight of potatoes has been higher than solutions where the potatoes have only lost a small amount of their weight. This indicates the bigger the weight loss in the mass of the potato, the bigger the difference between the two concentrations of the potato and the solution that it is soaked