Osmosis Experiment

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Pages: 5

The process of osmosis is wonderful and intriguing. It is a cellular level process that constantly takes place in the body without even being noticed. This experiment to define how osmosis works in different environments help to understand the process a little easier. In the experiment, its objectives are to define solvent, solute and solution. Define osmosis, isotonic, hypotonic, hypertonic as they relate to relative concentrations of osmotically active substances. Determine the direction and rate of osmosis into and out of simulated cells, explain why diffusion and osmosis are important to cells and how the solutions affect plant cells.
Keywords: Solute, solvent, solution, osmosis, isotonic, hypotonic, hypertonic, simulated cells, diffusion
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It hosts many processes liking protein synthesis, making of different chemicals using RNA and the most important of all; osmosis. Osmosis is the diffusion of free water across a selectively permeable membrane from a region of higher free water concentration to a region of lower free water concentration. The process was discovered by Henri Dutrochet in France. This process is used to maintain homeostasis to regulate what enters and exits the cell. The job is assigned to plasma membrane, which is selectively and differentially permeable. When describing osmosis, there are three important terms to understand; solvent refers to dissolving agent, solute refers to dissolving substances and solution is the homogenous mixture of two or more kinds of molecules. The process of osmosis is divided into three types of processes based on their mobility of water from each regions. The different solutions are isotonic solution, hypotonic solution and hypertonic solution. In an isotonic solution, the extracellular fluid has the same osmolarity as the cell. If the osmolarity matches, there will be no net movement of water in isotonic solution. In a hypotonic solution, the extracellular fluid has lower osmolarity than the …show more content…
As the data depicts the weight of each bag changed over the time of 40 minutes. The change in weight depicted that the process of osmosis was working with the solutions and the bags. As introduced that osmosis is a process of maintaining homeostasis in the cell to maintain what goes in and comes out. The experiment shows exactly how the osmosis works through the dialysis bag to maintain itself in different environments. The dialysis bags work as a selective permeable membrane for its surroundings. In beaker A, the initial weight of the bag was 11.4 g; but during the process it started losing its weight because it was in a hypertonic environment. Its final weight was 16.5 g. In beaker B, the initial weight of the bag was 11.3 g; it started the in a isotonic solution and remained isotonic because the solution the bag was in had the same solution. Its final weight was 10.4 g. In beaker C, the initial weight of the bag was 8.5 g; the solution it was in was a hypertonic solution and caused the bag to gain water and being a hypotonic solution. Its final weight was 9.5 g. In beaker D, the initial weight of the bag was 9.3 g, and the bag was a hypotonic as a final result. The final weight was 8.9 g. In beaker e, the initial weight of the bag was 10.4 g. The bag was chose as a control for the experiment which included magnesium sulfate solution in the beaker and 1% MgSO4 in the bag. Its final weight was 11.9 g. The final beaker F, the initial weight of the bag was 11 g,