Osmosis and diffusion

Learning Goal: I’m working on a biology exercise and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.

1. In an experiment, a peeled potato was cut into half and wells were created in the potato halves as shown in Figure 2.2. One half of the potato was boiled before the experiment.

Both potato halves were soaked in 10 cm’ of distilled water before their wells were filled with 5 cm³ of

10% salt solution.

peeled raw potato

10% salt solution

peeled boiled

potato

distilled water

Figure 2.2

Recall the concepts of osmosis and diffusion. Imagine how the distilled water and salt solution will move in each potato half. Consider the changes that occurred in the two potatoes halves, and the differences between distilled water and 10% salt solution.

(a) Predict

what will happen to the levels of the Salt solution in the well and distilled water in the dish of:

(i) the peeled raw potato after 24 hours