Egg Osmosis

Science Lab Report

Michael Wang

November 21th 2020

CP biology
 Introduction:
General Background:

Osmosis is the process in which water moves through a membrane. The natural
movement of water is from the side of the membrane with a high concentration of water
to the side with a low concentration of water.
After dissolving the eggshell, we are left with a membrane that holds the insides of the
egg. This membrane is selectively permeable.

Aim of the Investigation:

The experiment is aimed at giving a better understanding of osmosis process and the
different experiment conditions under which osmosis occurs.
And a further study about the relationship between osmosis’s direction and
concentration difference of intracellular and outercellular environment

Hypothesis / Prediction :

If the egg is placed into water, then it will increase in weight since water is a hypotonic
liquid because it contains more water than the egg.
If the egg is placed into other solution with a higer concentration of solute than egg
itself then it will decrease in weight since the solution is a hypertonic liquid because it
contains less water than the egg.
 Material and methods:
Material:

egg, vinegar, distilled water, corn syrup,

5% NaCl, 10% NaCl, 15% NaCl, 20% NaCl
beaker, stopwatch, tissue, electronic scale

Method:

1. Weigh the eggs. First, individually weigh each raw egg on an electronic scale.
2. Fill a cup with white vinegar. Carefully pour the vinegar into a cup without
filling to the brim..
3. Submerge the eggs in the vinegar. Gently lower the eggs into the cup of vinegar
using a spoon. Make shure the egg is submerged.
4. Soak the eggs for at least 24 hours. Once the shells dissolve, the eggs will be
naked, encased only by the thin membrane.
5. Remove and rinse the eggs. After 24 hours, gently and slowly pour the vinegar
into the sink. Rinse the eggs under slow, running water to remove any film on
the outside of the egg.
6. Record the weights of egg. Weigh each egg individually. Subtract the weight of
the bowl from the total. Record the weight of each egg on paper.
7. Submerge naked egg in water. Fill a clean cup with enough water to submerge
the naked egg.
8. Count the minute use stopwatch at 5 min, 10 min, 15 min. At each stop time,
take out the egg. Dry them with tissue and weight it again on the electronic scale.
And record the weigh data
9. Observe the difference of egg’s weigh after its shrinking.
 Data collection

Naked egg in distilled Elasped time Weight(g)

water
Start 0 74.081
End interval 1 5 74.184
End interval 2 10 75.858
End interval 3 15 75.99

Naked egg in different liquids:

Solution Start weight(g) End weight(g)
Distilled water 70.07 73.83
Corn syrup 75.22 71.44
5% NaCl 74.43 74.32
10% NaCl 76.73 75.74
15% NaCl 70.31 69384
20% NaCl 89.29 84.78

Result: The egg weight will increase as time go by.

 Data processing and presentation

Naked egg in distilled water Elasped time Weight(g) Weight gain(g)

Start 0 74.081
End interval 1 5 74.184 0.103
End interval 2 10 75.858 1.674
End interval 3 15 75.99 0.132

Egg weight against elasped time

76.5
76
75.5
75
74.5
74
73.5
73
0 5 10 15

Egg weight gained against elasped time

1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 5 10 15

Solution Start weight(g) End weight(g) Weight difference(g) % changein weight

Distilled water 70.07 73.83 3.76 5.36
Corn syrup 75.22 71.44 3.78 -5.03
5% NaCl 74.43 74.32 0.11 -0.14
10% NaCl 76.73 75.74 0.99 -1.29
15% NaCl 70.31 69.84 0.47 -0.67
20% NaCl 89.29 84.78 4.51 -5.05
 Weight difference(g)
5
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Distilled Corn syrup 5% NaCl 10% NaCl 15% NaCl 20% NaCl
water

0
Distilled Corn syrup 5% NaCl 10% NaCl 15% NaCl 20% NaCl
water
-2

-4

-6

% changein weight
 Argumentation & Documentation

1. Goal of experiment
The overall objective of the experiment is to understand the osmosis process, and
the effect of solute concentration on the process.

2. Experiment result
If the egg is placed in hypotonic solution. It will increase in weight.
If the egg is placed in hypertonic solution It will decreased in weight.
The higher the concentration of solution, the lower the weight it will loss.

3. Experimental evidence:
From the data, we can see that as the concentration of NaCl goes higher.
The weight loss of egg also goes higher.
When egg is placed in distill water, its weight increases.

4. Source of error:
b. The weigh loss for 15%NaCl is less than the weight loss for 10% NaCl which
doesn’t fit the trend. It maybe caused by unstandard process when dry the wet egg
using tissue. There might be extra liquid on this egg, and these liquid is also counted
in ther final egg weight.
c. The human error should be expressed as personal error.
d. This error will lead to a bigger egg weight
e. This error will cause bias on the final conclusion.
d. We can reduced this error by drying the wet egg with tissue more carefully.

5. Methods for additional analysis:

1. Using X-Y plot dot graph(X is % concentration of solution, Y is % change in
egg weight) to plot the graph in Microsoft Excel.
2. Find the fitted line, and further calculate the function equation of the fitted line
by Microsoft Excel.
3. Studying how fast does the egg weight loss against the concentration of NaCl
solution.