Investigate the factors affecting the rate of Osmosis :: GCSE Biology Osmosis Coursework

Investigate the factors affecting the rate of OsmosisPlanningOsmosis is the diffusion of water from a start minginess of soluteto a higher concentration of solute, through a parti aloney permeablemembrane. In a high concentration of water the amount of solute (e.g.sucrose) is low. This could be called a weak or dilute dissolver. In alow concentration of water the amount of solute is high. This could becalled a strong or backbreaking solution. When a partially permeablemembrane divides two such solutions, the water lead move from the areaof high concentration to the area of low concentration until bothsides are equal. In plant cells water flows through the cell wall andcell surface membrane into the vacuole from the outside. As a result,the cell swells up. It doesnt conflagrate as the cell wall stops the cellexpanding too much at this point we say a cell is fully turgid.AimThe design of my investigation is to investigate the factorsaffecting the rate of Osmosis. The key factors I have found affectthis areLength - of membraneTemperature - of waterConcentration - of solutionThe factor I am going to investigate is the concentration of thesolution in which the potatoes are placed. By doing this I go forth haveto control all other factors to ensure a lovely test, these are doingall the tests at room temperature to control the temperature as ahigher temperature would mean diffusion would slide by quicker. The massand surface area of the potatoes at the beginning of the experimentare other controls I will need to monitor to ensure a fair test. Themass of the potato is a dependent variable this means that it will bemeasured throughout the experiment. I will measure the mass in gramscorrect to 2d.p. The potato chip will be measured before it is put inthe solution, and after. This will allow us to see whether osmosis hastaken place, and to what extent.The sight of the solution that the potato chips are kept in must befair. The must be totally covered in the solution, and the amount ofsolution will be kept the same because all the potato chips are thesame size. The amount of solution I cover each chip in will be 20cm.PredictionI predict in my experiment that the higher the concentration of sugarin the solution, the smaller the potato chip will become. I predictthis as the greater the concentration of water in the externalsolution, the greater the amount of water that enters the cell by