Topic > Effects of Potato Cell Molarity Change: Laboratory Experiment

IndexLaboratory ReportTheory:Planning:Analysis:Evaluation:Laboratory ReportTheory:The random movement of water molecules from a high water potential gradient (high concentration ) at a low potential gradient (low concentration) across the partially permeable membrane is called osmosis. In osmosis, the solute cannot pass through the partially permeable membrane, but the solvent can because it only allows certain materials to pass. (Pickering Ron) An example of the osmosis effect is the pruned fingers we get when our hand is wet in water. water for a long time and the skin appears swollen. (Kulbhushaan Raghuvanshi). If osmosis occurs in red blood cells (animal cells), they burst because they have no cell wall as water enters the cell when placed in a solution with a high concentration of water and shrinks when placed in a solution with a low concentration of water. If osmosis occurs in the plant cell, the plant cell swells but does not burst due to the strong cell wall when placed in a solution with a low concentration of water. (Brittani Sponaugle) Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Planning: I conducted an experiment where we experimented what is the effect of molarity on the mass change of the potato cell? We took 6 potatoes of similar size and length and then recorded each of their masses using a measurement scale. We then put them into solutions with different molarities such as 0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1. And after a while we took them out and weighed them again. We calculated the percent mass change by dividing the mass change over the initial mass and multiplying it by 100. I predicted that if potato cells are placed in solutions with a higher molarity, they will lose mass, and if potato nuclei are placed in solutions with a low concentration of NaCl, the more mass it will acquire. In this experiment, the independent variable was the molarity of the NaCl solution and the dependent variable was the percent change in mass. The controlled variables were temperature, size of potato, time spent in solution, and amount of solution. Analysis: The results I got were in accordance with the prediction I had made. My results showed that if the potato was placed in a solution with molarity 0 (distilled water) it gained mass while potatoes placed in solutions with low concentration of water (higher molarity) lost mass. I conclude that this is because when the potato cell was placed in distilled water, the concentration of NaCl (solute) was higher inside the cell than outside the cell, while the concentration of solvent (water) was higher outside the cell and inside the cell. Therefore water moved inside the cell as the solute could not get past the partially permeable membrane increasing the mass of the cell. Similarly, when the potato cell was placed in a solution of higher molarity, the concentration of NaCl was higher outside the cell and lower inside the cell, while the concentration of water was higher inside the cell and lower than the outside. Then the water moved out of the cell from a higher concentration to a lower concentration and the cell lost mass. We conducted our experiment several times and averaged them to get more accurate results. From the table)