Osmosis
GCSE Biology - Osmosis Coursework Potato and Osmosis Investigation Skill Area P: Planning Aim: To investigate the effect of varying concentration of a certain sugar solution on the amount of osmotic activity between the solution and a potato chip of a given size. Hypothesis: Osmosis is defined as the net movement of water or any other solution¡|s molecules from a region in which they are highly concentrated to a region in which they are less concentrated. ... „Y At point A the graph tells the viewer that no osmosis has occurred, suggesting that the concentration of water inside the cell is equal to the solution outside. ... When they take up water by osmosis they start to swell, but the cell wall prevents them from bursting. ... This liquid or hydrostatic pressure works against osmosis. ... When plant cells are placed in concentrated sugar solutions they lose water by osmosis and they become "flaccid. ... For instance if one of the potato chips was 1cm longer the surface area of the chip would be larger and there would therefore be more space for osmosis to occur. ... This will allow us to see whether osmosis has taken place, and to what extent. ... This part of the preparation must be done very accurately as a change in the surface area may allow more or less osmosis to occur. ... This is where no osmosis is taking place, both the potato and the solution have an identical molar concentration. ... 25 M and that osmosis took place. ... I think I took easily enough results for the amount of concentrations that I was using, and the time that I used for the experiment to last was enough to allow sufficient osmosis to occur. However if I was to repeat the experiment I might well increase the time of the result to allow more osmosis to happen and possibly find out the saturation point of the chips. ... The cutting of the potatoes was the most difficult part of the experiment as although I was recording my results by mass, it could well have affected the surface area and so the overall rate of osmosis.