Name Sang Kee

Date May 14th 2017

Course Section 4
Teacher Ms.Chen
Date performed; May 13th 2017

Potato Osmosis Lab

Introduction: In this lab, you will be seeing the effects of salt water on the potato slices. By
using different percentage of salt water, it will tell you an estimate how much of salt water can
damage you if you intake salt water. By creating different salt water solutions with different
concentration of isotonic, hypertonic, and hypotonic to determine whether the water exits or
enters the potato.

Purpose: In this lab, you will use potatoes to gain a deeper understanding of the concept of
osmosis and diffusion through a selectively permeable membrane.

Hypothesis: If the potatoes were to be in different concentrations of salt water, the potato in the
highest concentration salt water will be the most affected by osmosis.

Materials: 2 potatoes, knife, water, salt, ruler, scale, paper towel, pot, tape and pen, saran wrap,
4 cups, rubber bands. Jar

Procedure: Cut potatoes in 4 equal pieces. Boil 500 mL of water. Once water has come to a boil,
put in salt until it is saturated. Pour the saturated salt water into a 500 mL jar and label it as 100%
salt water. Make 4 different water solutions: 10%, 5%, 1%, Pure water. Measure the potatoes
mass and length and record. Put the 4 potato pieces into each water solutions, and put a saran
wrap and rubber band around each one. After 24 hours, measure the mass and length again and
record.

Results:

Volume of "100% Volume of Pure Water Total Volume of Diluted

Dilution of Solution
Seawater" (mL) (mL) Solution (mL)

10% 10 90 100

5% 5 95 100
 1% 1 99 100

0%
0 100 100
(pure water)

0% "Seawater"
10% "Seawater" 5% "Seawater" 1% "Seawater"
Solution (Pure
Solution Solution Solution
Water)

Initial Length of
50 50 50 50
Potato (mm)

Final Length of
48 49 45 50
Potato (mm)
Change in Potato
-2 mm -1 mm -5 mm 0 mm
Length (mm)

Initial Mass Potato

17g 21g 18g 18g
(g)

Final Mass Potato

14g 19g 21g 21g
(g)

Change in Potato
-3 g -2 g +3 g +3 g
Mass (g)

Turgidity of Potato
Flaccid Less flaccid Crisp Crispiest
(flaccid or crisp)

Predicted Tonicity
of Potato
Compared to
Solution Hypertonic Isotonic Isotonic Hypotonic
(Hypertonic,
Isotonic, or
Hypotonic)
 Mass Change of Potato Slices Left in Various "% Seawater" Solutions for 24 Hours

21 g

14
g

Mas
s (g)

0% 1% 5% 10%
Concentration of salt (%)
Discussion:

1. What happened overnight to the potato slices?

Overnight, the 4 potato slices had different reactions. Some slices increased
in mass, decreased in mass, decreased in length, and the turgidity changed.

2. Why did it happen?

It happened because of osmosis. The potato in the more salty water became
wilt and grew smaller because water tends to move towards high
concentrated dissolved chemicals, so if the water outside the potato is saltier
than the water inside, water will move outside. As it loses more water, the
potato becomes more wilt and soft. The pure water and less salty water stays
 the same but maybe more crisp because there is more salt inside the potato
than the water surrounding it which means water surrounding is moving
inside the potato.

3. Is diffusion or osmosis responsible for changes in length of the

potato slices?

Define both of these terms. Both diffusion and osmosis are responsible for
change in length of the potato. Diffusion is movement of particles from a
region of high concentration to low concentration. Osmosis is movement of
water from an area of high concentration to the area of low concentration.

4. Which of the three solutions is isotonic to potato cells? How do

you know this?

The pure water solution is isotonic because the potato did not change in
length.

5. Using appropriate terms, explain why some potato cells gained mass and others
lost mass.

As water may enter or exit due to osmosis and diffusion, it may gain mass or
lose mass.

6. Define hypertonic, isotonic, and hypotonic.

Hypertonic is the solution with the greatest amount of solute. Isotonic

is a solution with the same amount of solute. Hypotonic is a solution
with the least amount of solute.

7. Using your graph to predict the mass of a 10 gram potato section placed in a
sucrose solution of 0.1%, 2%, and 4.8%.

I predict that the mass of a 10 gram potato in 0.1% would be about the same so 10 gram,
2% to be about 9.8g, 4.8% to be about 9 g

8. Discuss why wilted celery will become crisp when placed in a glass of pure
water.

The celery will become crisp when placed in a glass of pure water due to osmosis. Water
will move from a high solute area, to a low solute area. The water will go inside the
celery as the water is high solute and celery is low solute.

9. Why can road salt cause damage to street side plants?

 Road salt will damage street plants because of osmosis. Rock salt is the low solute and
the plants are the high solute so the water from plants will diffuse in to the rock salt
which drains the water.

10. Why did the sailor die more quickly drinking salt water than
not drinking at all?
What do you think killed the sailor?

The sailor died more quickly drinking salt water because if you drink
salt water, the salinity outside your cells increase rapidly. Human
kidneys are designed to only make urine that is less salty than salt
water, so to get rid of all the excess salt, you have to urinate more
water than you drink, causing dehydration.

Conclusion: As expected, as I experienced with 4 potatoes in 4 different salt water concentration

solutions, the highest concentration salt water was the most affected by osmosis.