Investigate the Cell Sap Concentration of Solute in a Potato Chip using

Investigate the Cell Sap Concentration of Solute in a Potato Chip using OsmosisAimThe aim of the experiment is to check into the cell sap concentrationof solute in a spud chip using osmosis and produce a figure informedby the investigation as to what this is.Background InformationA factor that effects how much pee moves into a cell is the soluteconcentration within it. Water moves in and out of cells by diffusion,this diffusion is called osmosis. Osmosis is the diffusion of watermolecules from a place with a high water emf or highconcentration of water to a suffering water potential or low concentrationof water. If a resolving has a high water potential this means it isweak or laden solution so it only has a small solute (e.g. glucose)concentration. However, if a solution has a low water potential it isa strong more concentrate solution because it has a much highersolute concentration. Osmosis is the diffusion of water in thesesolutions from a high water potential to a low wa ter potential or interms of solute concentrations, from a dilute solution to a moreconcentrated solution as a more concentrated solution would draw amuch lower water potential that a dilute one. The water passes withwhat is known as a subroutineially permeable membrane, which basically iswhat separates living cells from their surrounding. The membrane iscalled partially permeable and not fully permeable because it onlyallows water to diffuse through it and not solute. The cell fence is anexample of a fully permeable membrane because it allows water andsolute to pass through it, it does not block any of these molecules.The diffusion of water molecules by osmosis unendingly flows down a waterpotential gradient, which basically means from a high to a low waterpotential this is how the water moves up through a plant in the xylemvessels, once one cell is full of water, the water will move all atonce to the next cell. The water is moving from a place of highconcentration to a place o f low concentration, like the valves in ourhearts stop our blood flowing support the other way, the cell membrane ofthe cell make sure the water only flows up the plant, this is known asthe transpiration stream. When water is lost through the stomata thisleaves free cells with low water potentials therefore the water isalways moving up the plant from higher water potentials to ... ...nt parts of thepotato as they may have different solute concentration and it may bediscovered that the point of no net movement will be different indifferent areas of the potato or even in different areas of the samechip. The smaller the potato slices from the different areas of thepotato then the more detailed an analysis could be of which part ofthe potato has the highest/lowest % solute concentration.The experiment could be done again using smaller concentrations, saywith a range of 5%-7% and at intervals of 0.25% this way a figure forthe actual % solute concentration in a potato chip could bepin- pointed to a much more exact figure.Finally an experiment could be done using different types of potatoesto decipher whether the type of potato depends on the % soluteconcentration it has. The trends could be taken for many types ofpotato and then an average taken of them to give a figure which mostrepresents the solute concentrations in many potatoes. This figurecould then be compared or even investigated at the same time as anexperiment to see if there were different solute concentrations indifferent parts of the potato and the links, if any, between themanalysed.