:• Experiments:

Important in practical work

1. When a piece of potato (plant cell) is placed in distilled water or diluted solution of sugar or salt, it
will increase in length as it gains water by osmosis and the cells are turgid.
2. When a piece of potato (plant cell) is placed in concentrated solution of sugar or salt, it will
decrease in length as it loses water by osmosis (change in length will be represented in ve value) and
the cells are flaccid.
3. Repeating the experiment several times is very important for more reliable results and to eliminate
errors or ignore anomalous results as we take average or mean from the results. When we repeat a
certain experiment several times, one value might be different or odd so we say this result is
anomalous and it should be ignored
4. When there is no change in length in a potato strip when put in a solution, this means that the
concentration of sugar inside the potato is equal to the concentration of the solution, thus the net
movement of water is zero (amount of water lost = amount of water gained)
1. Diffusion through visking tubing:
Visking/dialysis tubing has tiny holes that allows the passage of small molecules only.

Observations: the colour inside the tubing turns blue black. Iodine solution

Conclusion: the iodine molecules diffuse to inside the Starch solution tubing, react with the starch molecules causing the

color change, while the starch molecules cannot diffuse out of the tubing so therefore the iodine molecules are smaller
than starch molecules.

2. Diffusion of ammonia gas:

Observation: the litmus paper turns blue one after another due to the diffusion of ammonia molecules down their
concentration gradient, since the ammonia gas is alkaline, so it turns red litmus to blue.
The rate of diffusion is determined by measuring the time needed for each paper to change its colour

The cork is used to show that the movement of ammonia molecules is not due to air currents, to prevent the dryness of
litmus paper and to prevent the escape of ammonia gas.

If the experiment is repeated by using dilute ammonia, rate of diffusion will be slower and so the time will increase.

3. Osmosis and blood cells:

Blood plasma has a concentration equivalent to 0.85% salt solution. If fresh blood is placed into solutions with different
concentrations, the blood cells will gain or lose water by osmosis.

Three test tubes are set up, containing these solutions:

A: 10 cm' of distilled water

. B: 10 cm of 0.85% salt solution.

C: 10 cm of 3% salt solution.

1 cm of blood is added to each test tube and the tubes are shaken and a sample of each tube is examined under the
microscope.

Observations: The sample from

tube A is found to contain no cells,

tube B cells look normal

tube C cells are shrunken with crinkly edges.

Interpretations:

. tube A Cells take up water by osmosis, because the water potential outside the cells is higher than inside, cells expand,
pressure increases, cell membrane can't withstand the pressure so they burst.

tube B. Cells in B don't change because water potential outside the cells is equal to inside the cells, so water moving in =
water moving out/no net movement of water.

tube C ; Cells in lose water by osmosis, because the water potential inside the cells is higher than outside

N.B. If the tubes are placed in a centrifuge and spun around at high speed to separate any solid particles from
solutions, the results are shown in figure:
Tube A contains a clear solution and no solid material at the bottom (because all cells were burst).

Tubes B & C contain colourless liquid & red precipitate at the bottom (whole cells are present).

4. 4. Demonstration of diffusion in a jelly:

► Agar jelly has a consistency similar to the cytoplasm of a cell as it has high water content.

► This experiment uses the reaction between HCl and potassium permanganate solution.

When HCl comes into contact with potassium permanganate, the purple colour of permanganate disappears.

 A petri dish is prepared which contains a 2 cm depth of agar jelly dyed purple with potassium permanganate. 3
cubes of different sizes are cut out of the jelly with side lengths 2 cm, 1 cm & 0.5 cm.
 The cubes are dropped at the same time into a beaker of dilute HCI
 The time taken for each cube to turn colourless is taken.
 The colour of the smallest cube will disappear at first, because it has the largest surface area/volume ratio.

5. Osmosis and visking tubing

  A Visking tubing is used in this experiment which is partially permeable, that allows the passage of small
molecules only.
 The tubing is filled with concentrated sugar solution, attaching it to a capillary tube and place the tube in a
beaker of water.
 The level in the capillary tube rises as water moves from the beaker to the inside of the tubing

6. • Experiment 6: The effect of different concentrations of sugar solution on the mass of potato cylinders:
 Wrap 6 potato cylinders in filter paper.
 Remove each potato cylinder from the filter paper and weigh.
 Place each potato cylinder into a sugar solution of known concentration e.g. 0,0.2, 0.4, 0.6,0.8 & 1% sugar
solution.
 Remove the potato cylinders after two hours
 Wrap the potato cylinders in filter paper to dry them so the results are not affected and no extra mass because
of water, then remove from the filter paper, reweigh and calculate percentage change in mass.
 % change in mass is calculated for valid %change in mass = final mass - initial mass x 100
initial mass
 comparisons as the starting mass was different.
Conclusions/interpretation:
Potato cylinders immersed in conc. 0, 0.2 & 0.4% have gained water by osmosis because
water potential outside cylinders was higher than inside. 0% has the highest gain
because the water potential gradient was highest.
Potato cylinders immersed in conc. 0.6, 0.8 & 1.0% have lost water by osmosis because
water potential inside cylinders was higher than outside. 1% has the highest loss
because the water potential was lowest.