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Egg Osmosis

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Introduction Many might think that an egg is made up of cells, when in actuality and egg itself is a cell. An egg has several main parts, including the egg shell (that acts as the cell membrane), the egg yolk and the egg white. There’s also a tiny white mass that is very important, it’s called the ovum, and it is the living part of the cell. If a hen lays an egg without mating with a cock then the ovum will not develop. If the hen does mate, then the egg will be fertile and it develops into a little chick. The egg being worked with in this experiment is not fertile (Lawrence Hall of Science 2009). The egg white is mostly water with a small amount of dissolved proteins known as albumin. The purpose of the egg white is to keep the …show more content…

The change in solution was 58mL. Finally, the initial mass of the egg was 56.7 and the final mass was 81.5. This was an increase in mass by 33.8 (Table 1). Graphs and Tables * Table 1*: Changes in the mass of the egg and the solution Discussion/Conclusion The reason that the egg gained mass when soaked in vinegar is because vinegar is a hypotonic solution to the egg. There are less dissolved solutes (more free water molecules) in the vinegar than inside the egg. This makes the molecules move to even out and reach equilibrium. The water in the vinegar diffuses into the egg, causing it to become larger and gain mass. The hypothesis for this part was correct. It was said that if the egg is soaked in vinegar for two days, then the egg will get bigger and have an increased mass. Then, the egg was placed in syrup, which made the egg decrease in mass. The syrup is a hypertonic solution to the egg. There are more dissolved solutes (less free water molecules) so the water inside the egg diffuses out into the syrup to reach equilibrium. The hypothesis for this part was also correct; if the egg is then soaked in syrup, then the egg will lose mass. There were errors that could have affected this experiment, small things like there was left over vinegar still at the bottom of the graduated cylinder when the syrup was poured in. The same kind of thing could have happened in to the cup. The amount of time the egg was left in the syrup and vinegar might

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