Tabitha Darrell Form 5C

Date: 27/11/2020

Lab# 2
Title: Osmosis in Onion Rings.

Aim: To investigate osmosis using Onion Rings.

Materials: Apparatus:

Onion Petri- dish and lids

Distilled water Knife

Sodium Chloride solutions Ruler

Stirrer

Stopwatch

Beaker

Glass rod

Tile
Diagram:

Procedure:

1. The onion was peeled and cut to produce rings.

2. One petri dish was labelled “distilled water” and half filled with distilled water.
3. Step 2 was repeated using a super saturated salt solution and salt water respectively.
4. The length was recorded for the three (3) rings and placed into separate petri-dishes and
left for 10 minutes.
5. Each ring was then removed from the petri dish and placed on a tile.
6. The length of each was measured.
7. All observations were recorded.
Results

TABLE SHOWING MEASUREMENT OF ONION RINGS BEFORE AND AFTER OSMOSIS

Measurements A-Distilled water(cm) B-Salt Solution(cm) C-Saturated Salt Solution(cm)

Before 0.5 0.3 0.4
After 0.6 0.2 0.2

Discussion

Osmosis is a special kind of diffusion. It is the diffusion of water molecules across a selectively
permeable membrane. Cell membranes are all selectively permeable membranes. ‘Selectively
permeable’ means that water and some substances can pass through the membrane but other
substances do not. There are three types of effects on plant cells in osmosis, hypotonic, isotonic,
and hypertonic. An isotonic solution has the same concentration as the cell contents, some water
molecules will move into the cell and some will move out. There is no concentration gradient so
the movements each way are the same and balance each out. A solution will be hypertonic to a
cell if its solute concentration is higher than that inside the cell, and the solutes cannot cross the
membrane, this type of movement occurred in the salt solution and saturated salt solution.
Whereas in a hypotonic solution, there is a greater solution inside of the cell than outside. It was
observed that the length of the onion ring when placed in solution A, grew by 0.1 cm. This
increase in length is due to the movement of the solution molecules into the plant cells. The
onion ring in solution B, was observed that the length of the onion ring shrunk by 0.1 cm. This is
due to the concentration of solvent molecules in the petri-dish being lower than the concentration
in the onion rings. In petri-dish C, a similar observation was made as in petri-dish B, the only
difference being the length shrunk by 0.2 cm rather than 0.1. Based on this difference, it can be
concluded that the solution in petri-dish C was a more concentrated salt solution, resulting in
more shrinkage as more molecules would have to move across the concentration gradient.

Sources of Errors
 1. Uneven/ unleveled surface

Limitations

1. Solution concentration not accurate

2. Onion rings has irregular length

Precautions

Reflection

Osmosis is important because it helps the body to distribute essential nutrients and the excretion
of metabolic waste. Without osmosis our existence would be threatened as our body systems will
not function as they should.

Conclusion

Osmosis was effectively demonstrated with the use of onion rings, proving that osmosis is
scientifically accurate and practical to our life.

References
Atwaroo-Ali, L 2014, Biology for CSEC Examinations, 3rd edition, Macmillan Education,
London