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Diffusion And Osmosis Lab Report

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For anatomy and physiology we were learning about human and plant cells. With this lesson we concentrated on the concepts of diffusion and osmosis. Diffusion is the movement of molecules in general from an area of high concentration to low concentration. An example of diffusion is when you spray air freshener. Slowly the smell will spread from one side of a room to another where it is not present, this is diffusion. Now osmosis is a special type of diffusion dealing with the movement of water molecules from an area of high concentration to a low concentration. An experiment that was conducted in class took place to physically observe the effects of osmosis through placing plant cells (a potato slice) in three different solutions containing …show more content…

As soon as I submerged the potatoes I recorded the solution levels. Starting time was 12:30pm. The isotonic solution level was 3.5cm, hypertonic 3.7cm, and hypotonic 4.3cm. Be sure to start with equal parts of each solution to ease the experiment and it will help see the change in the levels, this was my flaw in the experiment. After fifteen minutes I recorded the levels again with the isotonic remaining the same, hypertonic not at 3.8cm, and hypotonic at 4.1cm. After these measurements were taken I proceeded on with the experiment and let fifteen more minutes pass to complete the thirty minutes of the experiment. At this point, now 1:00pm, I recorded the solution levels a final time with the isotonic solution at 3.5cm, hypertonic at 3.8cm, and hypotonic at 4.1cm. Lastly I observed the physical character of each potato slice from the solutions. The potato slice from the isotonic solution had no changes due to the solute outside of it being of the same concentration allowing water to move in and out at a constant rate. Once I removed the slice from the hypertonic solution it instantly wilted over with a weakened structure. The water from inside the plant cells moved out to equalize the outer concentration of solute or salt. With the potato from the hypotonic solution, once removed, had swollen a bit because water from the outside surrounding moved into the cell to equalize the solute within it. One difference of the effects on plant cells versus the animal/human cells is when a human blood cell is surrounded by a hypotonic solution, as the water continues to move into the cell it will eventually burst or lyse because it does not contain strong cell walls like that of a plant cell. As a human blood cell is surrounded by a hypertonic solution is will shrink or crenate almost to the physical shape of a raisin, in which blood clots may form while a plant cell may

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