Concentration Of Sugar In Potato Cells example essay topic

Aim: To find out the concentration of sugar in potato cells. Plan: Background science: Osmosis is diffusion of a special kind. It is diffusion of water across a semi-permeable membrane. Osmosis is very popular in plant cells. Osmosis works in plant cells because the cell membranes of the plant cells are partially permeable membranes. The cell sap inside of the vacuole is the strong solution.

Therefore the water diffuses into the plant cell by osmosis and weakens the cell sap. Potato cells are also partially permeable. Therefore if the potato chip were placed in a sugar solution, which is weaker than it is in its cells, the potato chip would increase in size. Whereas, the potato chip will decrease in size if it is placed in a sugar solution that is stronger than the solution in its cells. Method: To find out the concentration of sugar in a potato cell, I used potato chips. I put potato chips in sugar solutions of different strengths.

I then checked the end result and found out the change in size. I will also do some research using textbooks to see why there are certain results. I used one chip in each test tube so they won't have any effect on each other. Equipment: . 6 test tubes. 1 cork borer.

1 large potato. Water. Sugar solution. Measuring cylinder. 1. I made up 6 different concentration solutions...

30 cm 3 sugar, 0 cm 3 water. 24 cm 3 sugar, 6 cm 3 water. 18 cm 3 sugar, 12 cm 3 water. 12 cm 3 sugar, 18 cm 3 water. 6 cm 3 sugar, 24 cm 3 water. 0 cm 3 sugar, 30 cm 3 water 2.

I cut six potato chips using a cork borer. 3. I measured the length of each potato chip and cut them so they are between 56 mm and 59 mm 4. I put them in the solution and left them in there for half an hour.

5. I took them out and measured the length. I recorded the results and I observed the change in length. How I made it a fair test.

I made it a fair test by controlling different variables and making different factors that affect the experiment the same. Here is a list of all the things I made the same: How I made the measurements accurate. I measured the volumes of water and sugar solution using a measuring cylinder and made sure there was not more than a difference of 1 mm so I am quite sure they were very accurate. I measured the length of the potato chip with a ruler to the nearest mm. I used the same cork borer to make the potato chip so they all have the same width. Hypothesis: I think that the potato chips in the test tubes with one molar and 0.8 molars of sugar will decrease in size because the water in the chip's cells will diffuse into the test tube as substances diffuse from an area of higher concentration of water to an area of lower concentration.

I also think that the potato chips in teat tubes with 0.2 molars and 0 molar of sugar will increase in size as water will diffuse from the test tubes into the chip cells. I think the potato chip in the test tube with 0.6 or 0.4 molars of sugar will stay the same in size because it doesn't have too much sugar or water in it. Results: Volume of sugar solution (cm 3) Volume of water (cm 3) Concent r-ation of sugar molar Length of chip at start (mm) Average length of chip at start (mm) Leng that end (mm) Average length at end (mm) Change in Length (mm) 30 0 1 59 59 56 56 -3 24 6 0.8 59 59 57-56 57.5 -2.5 18 12 0.6 56 56.5 55 55 -1.5 12 18 0.4 56 56 55 55 -1 6 24 0.2 56 56 56 56 0 0 30 0 57 57 59 59 +2 Conclusion: The graph shows that if it were a scatter graph the correlation would be very strong. This shows that osmosis definitely took place.

My graph is negative showing that the stronger the concentration, the smaller the potato chip got. As the concentration got weaker, the potato chip increased in size. This supports the idea of osmosis. My graph shows that there was a point were there was no change which means osmosis didn't take place in one of the test tubes.

The only reason that could have happened is if the test tube had the same amount of sugar as the potato cells. The concentration, which had the same amount of sugar as the potato cell had a 0.2 molar concentration of sugar, which means that the concentration of sugar in a potato cell is approximately 0.2 molars. Evaluation. My results were as I expected and I did not have any anomalies. My results were pretty average and there were no drastic exceptions.

Although the test tube with 0.6 molars of sugar stood out in the graph as it was the farthest away from the line of best fit and did not follow the sequence as it reduced in size more than expected. There are many reasons why this might happen as there might have been more water in the potato chip or my measurements might have been incorrect or inaccurate. However, my hypothesis applied to it so I accepted the result. I could have improved my experiment in many ways.

Although my chips were between 56 mm and 59 mm, my results would have been more accurate if all my chips were the same length. So I could have cut the ones which are 57 mm and above to 56 mm. I could have aligned all my potato chips and cut them together making them exactly the same size I also think I should have had more range of solutions. I could have had ten ranges e.g. 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 etc in ten different test tubes.

This would have made my results more accurate because then I would have been able to get more of a correlation and see the different points in which there is absolutely no change. I could also have put maybe two chips in a test tube so I can see whether there is a difference in sugar content in different parts of the potato.