Preview

Osmosis in Potato Cells

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
4808 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Osmosis in Potato Cells
Ben Zaré 9MK Biology Investigation - Osmosis in Potato Cells 9/7/04

Section 1 – Planning

Aim
What is the aim of your experiment? What do you want to find out?
The aim of this experiment is to investigate how potato tissue changes when placed in sucrose solution of different concentrations. Therefore, I want to find out if and how osmosis differs, when the concentration is changed.

Variables
What is the variable you are going to change in the experiment?
The input variable of this experiment (i.e. the variable to change) will be the concentration of sucrose solution present in the test tubes, which the potato samples will be placed into.

What is the variable you are going to measure in your experiment?
The output variable of this experiment (i.e. the variable to measure) will be the mass and length of the potato sample, before and after osmosis has occurred.

What are the other variables in your experiment? How can you keep them constant?
The variables to be controlled in this experiment are: the total amount of sucrose solution used, the size and shape of the test tubes used, the type of water used (in this case, it will always be distilled), the potato tuber used to collect potato samples (for one particular set of results), the length and circumference of the cork borer used the type of weighing machine used (i.e. how many decimal places it measures to).

Apparatus
What apparatus are you using? What is this piece of apparatus for? How does it work? Why did you choose it? How accurate is it?

• A potato tuber of a certain size and variety, to obtain all of the potato samples for one particular set of results.
• A cork borer to obtain samples of a certain circumference from the potato tuber, which can then be cut to a uniform length.
• Test tubes (6 for each set of results) to store the distilled water and sucrose solutions (of different ratios) in, after they have been measured out correctly. Then the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Biolab 1208 Lab Report

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The purpose of this experiment is to calculate the mass/change in mass of plant tissue, in our case potato tubers. The change in mass of the potato tuber disk determines the osmotic concentration. After soaking the potato tubers in different concentrations of sucrose, then calculating the percent change in mass, we can determine the osmotic concentration. The…

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lab 1C - using the potato core borer, obtain 24 cylindrical slices of potato, four for each cup. Determine the mass of the four cylinders. Immerse four cylinders into each of the six beakers or cups. Let stand overnight. After time is up, remove the cores from the sucrose solutions and mass them. Record all data in its appropriate table.…

    • 2756 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Since the change in mass of the potato tubers was negative in the sucrose solutions from 0.2 mM to 0.5 mM, these solutions were hypertonic relative to the potato dicks. In the solution with only 0.1 mM of sucrose, the mass of the potato tubers increased which means that this…

    • 367 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Procedure: Variables: Controlled- water and size of potatoes. Manipulated variables- potatoes growth based on contents of solution.…

    • 893 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Potato Osmosis Paper

    • 587 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The reaction of the potato to the side submerged in water and the half excavated with salt.…

    • 587 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Osmosis Lab Response

    • 310 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The purpose of the lab was to discover, through osmosis, the concentration of sugar water in a potato. First, potatoes were cut into strips about 3 centimetres in length and six strips were individually massed. Next, the six strips were placed in 6 different Dixie cups, labelled A, B, Q, X, Y, and Z. Each of the Dixie cups were then filled just enough to cover the potato strips, with substances that matched the letters of the cups. About 24 hours later, the potatoes were taken out of the Dixie cups and were individually massed again. The resulting data is as follows.…

    • 310 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    My hypothesis in this experiment was that a Yukon gold potato will naturally absorb more water than a sweet potato due to the effects of osmosis. Osmosis plays a huge role in biology for a multitude of reasons. As defined by Freeman (2012) “The movement of water is a special case of diffusion that is given its own name: osmosis, occurs only when solutions are separated by a membrane that is permeable to some molecules but not others- that is, a selectively permeable membrane.”(P.90). It is also a type of passive transport, as it does not require energy.…

    • 181 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The aim is to investigate the effects of varying concentrations of a salt solution on the amount of osmotic activity between the solution and a potato of a given size.…

    • 3753 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Potato Osmosis Lab

    • 3353 Words
    • 14 Pages

    Through osmosis, I hypothesise that as the solution of the starch in each tube increases, the water content being reduced will cause the potato to release more water through the membrane to balance the starch solution, resulting in a decrease in the mass of the potatoes as the respective starch concentration increases, though maybe not for the 0% solution. Risk Assessment The potential danger of this experiment is relatively low. Nevertheless, lab coats and eye protection were worn when handling the starch concentration and extreme care was taken when cutting and weighing the potato using a scalpel on a slip-proof…

    • 3353 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    vugj

    • 460 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Conclusion: My hypothesis was correct; the potato cubes placed in distilled water and 0.2 M sucrose solution gained weight, starting with 5.97 grams and 7.35 grams respectively and ending with _____g and _____g. The ones in 1 M and 0.8 M…

    • 460 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Biology Eei

    • 3499 Words
    • 14 Pages

    The aim of this experiment was to test the effect of surface area on osmosis and the effect of solute concentration on osmosis. To test this aim to hypotheses were devised. 1) If potato pieces are immersed in various salt solutions, then the pieces with the greatest surface area to volume ratio will experience the greatest weight change, because more water can move by osmosis across the potato cell’s semi permeable membrane. 2) If potato pieces are immersed in various salt solutions, then the pieces immersed in the most concentrated solution will experience he greatest weight change, because more water must pass across the potato cells semi permeable membrane by osmosis to achieve an equilibrium. The results from testing these hypotheses did not support either and were shown to be flawed because they did not reflect the theories of osmosis relating to surface area to volume ration and salt concentration.…

    • 3499 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Potato Osmosis Lab

    • 1094 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Osmosis was clearly shown since the potato cylinders decreased or increased at different concentrations of sucrose. The results supported my hypothesis because for the 0.0 sucrose concentration the average percent change in mass was 16.9%. For the 0.2 concentration the percent change was 3.59%. For the 0.4 concentration the percent change was -15.3%. For the 0.6 concentration the percent change was -27.1%. For the 0.8 concentration the percent change was -23.2%. For the 1 concentration the percent change was -15.4%. The reason for the change in mass is the process of osmosis. When the sucrose concentration was 0, the cores gained weight because the concentration in the potato cells was different from the concentration outside, which was a hypertonic solution. When the sucrose concentration was 0.2, it was an isotonic solution, so there was no major difference in mass. When the concentrations of sucrose were higher (0.4, 0.6 and 0.8), the outside solution was hypotonic because there was a decrease in the potato…

    • 1094 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Potato Osmosis Lab Report

    • 432 Words
    • 2 Pages

    We started the lab by cutting the potato core length (44 mm). Each potato core are placed in test tubes. The test tubes have different salt concentration, test tube 1 has 0% salt concentration, test tube 2 has 0.625% salt concentration, test tube 3 has 1.25% salt concentration, test tube 4 has 2.5% salt concentration and test tube 5 has 5% salt concentration. The next day, we remove the potato core from the test tubes and measure their size. In test tube 1 with a 0% salt concentration, the potato core length after is 44 mm, the change in potato core length is 4 mm so the potato is hypertonic to that solution. In test tube 2 with a 0.625% salt concentration, the potato core length after is 42 mm, the change in potato length is 2 mm so the potato is hypertonic to that solution. In test tube 3 with a 1.25% salt concentration, the potato core length after is 39 mm, the change in potato length is -1 mm so the potato is…

    • 432 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Potato Lab

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Potatoes are just your average food; they have been around for as long as the human race can remember. In this lab we will make them be a prime example of osmosis, which is a transport mechanism. In this lab the problem being tested was what environment affects the mass of the potatoes the most. The independent variable is the environments used salt, water and iodine solution. The dependent variable is the mass of the potato after being exposed to the environment for 5 days. The control was a potato in no specific environment, meaning it is just sitting in air, no salt and no water/iodine solution. If the potato is exposed to a specific (hypotonic/hypertonic) environment then the mass will increase/decrease because the cell will grow or shrink due to the environment exposed to.…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    1) As the Concentration of the Sucrose Solution increases, the more the potato’s mass decreases. This is due to the solution being hypotonic. So, as the solute concentration gets higher, the potato’s water concentration will get…

    • 898 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays