Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Osmosis & Diffusion Science Experiment

Materials needed:
Potato strip
Concentrated Salt Solution
Weighing Machine

Steps/Procedure:
Put the potato strip into the concentrated solution for 10 minutes, taking out the potato strip from the concentrated salt solution every 2 minutes to weigh the potato strip. The potato strip would shrink and the weight of the potato strip would decrease steadily.

Explaination:
Osmosis moves down a water potential gradient, with a partially permeable membrane (potato) in this case. The potato strip has higher water potential than the concentrated salt solution. Therefore, the water/moisture of the potato strip moves out of the potato strip to the concentrated salt solution until the water potential are about the same.

Reflections:
As I feel that this topic would be taught this year, I read up on the topic first and understood it. Next, to further understand the experiment, I did an experiment. By doing this, I could really remember the theory behind it as I have done hands-on and captured the theory into my brain. This experiment is truely enriching as it is not only fun, enjoyable, but helps to learn as well.

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