Osmosis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Osmosis - Essay Example Water can pass through the membrane, either going inside the cell or going outside of it. In what direction does the water flow This is what this osmosis experiment will try to find out. According to the scientific theory, water will flow from a place where the concentration of chemicals is lower to another place where the concentration of chemicals is higher. What this means is that if the amount of chemicals inside the cell is higher than the amount of chemicals outside the cell, water will flow from the outside to the inside. The cell will absorb water. When the cell absorbs water, the cell will increase in weight or gain weight because there will be more water inside it. If the amount of chemicals outside the cell is higher than the amount of chemicals inside the cell, water will flow from the inside to the outside. The cell will lose water. When this happens, the cell will lose weight because there will be less water inside it. My experiment therefore will test whether the following hypothesis is true: that water will pass through the cell membrane of a plant or vegetable from the solution where the amount of chemicals is higher and into the solution where the amount of chemicals is lower. 8. This test is repeated four more times. ... Measuring spoon: 1 teaspoon = gram Weighing scale Clamp Paper and pen for recording data Timer I decided to conduct the experiment in the following way. 1. Cut a piece of swede into 15 slices and placed the slices inside a container at room temperature and covered the container with a lid. 2. Poured tap water into each test tube labelled A, B, and C. 3. Used the clamp to pick up three slices of swede A, B, and C and weighed each slice using the scale. 4. Recorded the weight in grams. 5. Placed slice A of swede in test tube A; slice B in test tube B; and slice C in test tube C to soak in the solution. Waited for 5 minutes. 6. Used the clamp to pick up the soaked swede and weighed it. Recorded the weight of each slice A, B, and C in grams. 7. I then threw away the water in the test tube, cleaned the test tube, and dried it. 8. This test is repeated four more times. Steps 2 to 4 above were followed, but before step 5, I used a teaspoon to add salt to the water in the pan. I then mixed the water for 1 minute until the salt was dissolved before putting the slice of swede inside the test tube to soak for 5 minutes. 9. The amount of salt in each test was: a. Test 1 0 teaspoon b. Test 2 1 teaspoon c. Test 3 2 teaspoons d. Test 4 3 teaspoons e. Test 5 4 teaspoons The results of the experiment are shown in Table 1. The mass of each piece of swede before and after soaking in the solution is recorded in grams. The change in mass is recorded in grams. The amount of salt added to the water is also measured in grams. The time is measured in minutes. The temperature for the environment is recorded in degrees Celsius. The temperatures for the materials used in the experiment - the 15 pieces of swede, salt, and water - are kept constant and is measured in degrees