Essay
Biology - Osmosis and Estimating water potential
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- University Of Central Lancashire Preston (UClan)
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YOC 002 Ryan MulcahyEstimating water potential
This set assignment is about estimating water potential with the impact of osmosis.
The author will be going to discuss about the overall topic of osmosis, the impact that
the osmotic shift will have on potato discs with a greater concentration of glucose
and will write a report about the results of the impact that osmosis will have on a
potato when placed into numerous test tubes containing different concentrations of
glucose and water levels.
Osmosis is a scientific process that transfers fluids between molecules that are in a
semi-permeable membrane, separating solutions of different concentrations. When
molecules move between cells to achieve equilibrium, the water molecules will follow
a concentration gradient and will go into a region of higher solute concentration. In
this practical test, potatoes and glucose were used. There a certain factors that can
influence osmosis, and that could be, the size of the potato discs and the
temperature. However, glucose is the only factor that the author will be examining.
Vocabulary.com (2017) https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/osmosis Available at
[osmosis - Dictionary Definition] (Accessed 27/11/2017).
The author’s hypothesis believed that the state of osmosis would predict that the
higher glucose levels within the test tubes, the more that the potato would weigh due
to the osmatic shift. The water that is already inside the potato will permeate the cell
membrane; this is known as hypotonic. The potatoes that have more water levels will
expand but not gain weight.
Page 1 of 8
, YOC 002 Ryan Mulcahy
Hypotonic-solution.Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com 21st Century Lexicon.
Dictionary.com, LLC. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/hypotonic-solution
(Accessed: December 12, 2017).
Variables:
There are three variables that was ongoing within this experiment, dependant,
independent and controlled. The dependant variable is what is measured and
affected during an experiment. The dependant variable was the weight of the potato
discs as this is dependent on the independent variable. The independent is a
variable that is not changed by any other variables. In this assignment, the
independent variable is water and glucose.
A controlled variable will not change throughout the duration of the experiment.
Within this experiment, the controlled variables were, the temperature of the water,
the duration of time that the potato spent in the water and finally, the shape of the
potato.
Method
The purpose of this experiment was to observe and conclude the impact that
different concentrations of glucose and water solutions would have on potato discs.
The author had to investigate and examine the impact that the concentration of
glucose would have on the potato discs when using the same independent variables;
these included the same pH levels, same sized potato discs, same room
temperature and 20 minutes for osmosis to take place.
The start of the experiment consisted of one large potato was cut through the centre
with a cork borer to get a strip of potato discs that measured at exactly six
Page 2 of 8
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