Investigating Osmosis Through Living Membranes
Paola Regalado
BIOL 2401.51501
Instructor Beverly Mitchell
October 18, 2015 Abstract
This lab will be focused on the movement of water from an area of low to high concentration via osmosis (McKinley, O’Loughlin, & Bidle, 2015). This experiment will be tested on eggs that have had their shells removed and we will see how a couple of solutions of different concentrations will affect the membranes on the eggs. One egg will be placed in 30% sucrose solution and the other in distilled water. The purpose of this experiment is to see how osmosis would typically work inside the human body. At the end of the experiment, we found that the egg that was submerged in hypertonic solution (distilled water) …show more content…
The cell’s membrane is known to be selectively permeable which means that the cell allows only certain objects and substances in and out of the cell (McKinley, O’Loughlin, & Bidle, 2015). Substances are moved across the cell membrane through a process called diffusion. Osmosis is a type of diffusion that involves the movement of water across the cell membrane from an area of low concentration to an area of high concentration (McKinley, O’Loughlin, & Bidle, 2015). There are three types of concentrations of solutes: isotonic, hypotonic, and hypertonic. In an isotonic solution, both the solution and solutes have the same concentration which results in equilibrium (McKinley, O’Loughlin, & Bidle, 2015). A hypotonic solution has a lower concentration of solutes while the cell has a higher concentration which causes the cell to swell with water and then eventually burst known as lysis (McKinley, O’Loughlin, & Bidle, 2015). A hypertonic solution contains a higher concentration of solutes and the cell has a lower concentration which causes water to leave the cell resulting in crenation or the shriveling up of the cell (McKinley, O’Loughlin, & Bidle, 2015). At the start of the experiment, I predicted that the egg would shrivel up in the hypertonic solution (30% glucose) and swell up in the hypotonic solution (distilled …show more content…
As I predicted, egg 1 which was submerged in the hypertonic solution (30 % sucrose) did start to lose water which would have slowly caused it to shrivel up if we had left the egg in for a longer period of time. This shriveling up is also known as crenation (McKinley, O’Loughlin, & Bidle, 2015). However, at the last weight recording of egg 1, it actually showed to have gone up in weight probably due to the error of having it outside of the solution for too long. Egg 2 was very consistent with its weight change however. Egg 2 was slowly gaining more weight (water) due to it being submerged in the hypotonic solution (distilled water). The swelling and bursting is known as lysis (McKinley, O’Loughlin, & Bidle, 2015). There definitely needs to be future experimenting tested the exact same way in order to get more accurate results
Paola Regalado
BIOL 2401.51501
Instructor Beverly Mitchell
October 18, 2015 Abstract
This lab will be focused on the movement of water from an area of low to high concentration via osmosis (McKinley, O’Loughlin, & Bidle, 2015). This experiment will be tested on eggs that have had their shells removed and we will see how a couple of solutions of different concentrations will affect the membranes on the eggs. One egg will be placed in 30% sucrose solution and the other in distilled water. The purpose of this experiment is to see how osmosis would typically work inside the human body. At the end of the experiment, we found that the egg that was submerged in hypertonic solution (distilled water) …show more content…
The cell’s membrane is known to be selectively permeable which means that the cell allows only certain objects and substances in and out of the cell (McKinley, O’Loughlin, & Bidle, 2015). Substances are moved across the cell membrane through a process called diffusion. Osmosis is a type of diffusion that involves the movement of water across the cell membrane from an area of low concentration to an area of high concentration (McKinley, O’Loughlin, & Bidle, 2015). There are three types of concentrations of solutes: isotonic, hypotonic, and hypertonic. In an isotonic solution, both the solution and solutes have the same concentration which results in equilibrium (McKinley, O’Loughlin, & Bidle, 2015). A hypotonic solution has a lower concentration of solutes while the cell has a higher concentration which causes the cell to swell with water and then eventually burst known as lysis (McKinley, O’Loughlin, & Bidle, 2015). A hypertonic solution contains a higher concentration of solutes and the cell has a lower concentration which causes water to leave the cell resulting in crenation or the shriveling up of the cell (McKinley, O’Loughlin, & Bidle, 2015). At the start of the experiment, I predicted that the egg would shrivel up in the hypertonic solution (30% glucose) and swell up in the hypotonic solution (distilled …show more content…
As I predicted, egg 1 which was submerged in the hypertonic solution (30 % sucrose) did start to lose water which would have slowly caused it to shrivel up if we had left the egg in for a longer period of time. This shriveling up is also known as crenation (McKinley, O’Loughlin, & Bidle, 2015). However, at the last weight recording of egg 1, it actually showed to have gone up in weight probably due to the error of having it outside of the solution for too long. Egg 2 was very consistent with its weight change however. Egg 2 was slowly gaining more weight (water) due to it being submerged in the hypotonic solution (distilled water). The swelling and bursting is known as lysis (McKinley, O’Loughlin, & Bidle, 2015). There definitely needs to be future experimenting tested the exact same way in order to get more accurate results