Reproduction

AS level Biology – Osmosis Experiment
Potato and Osmosis Investigation
Aim: To investigate the effect of varying concentration of a certain sugar solution on the amount of osmotic activity between the solution and a potato chip of a given size.
Hypothesis: Osmosis is defined as the net movement of water or any other solution molecules from a region in which they are highly concentrated to a region in which they are less concentrated. This movement must take place across a partially permeable membrane such as a cell wall, which lets smaller molecules such as water through but does not allow bigger molecules to pass through. The molecules will continue to diffuse until the area in which the molecules are found reaches a state of equilibrium, meaning that the molecules are randomly distributed throughout an object, with no area having a higher or lower concentration than any other.
For this particular investigation I think that the lower the concentration of the sugar solution in the test tube the larger the mass of the potato will be. This is because the water molecules pass from a high concentration, i.e. in the water itself, to a low concentration, i.e. in the potato chip. Therefore, the chips in higher water concentrations will have a larger mass than in higher sugar concentrations.
Variables:
To create a fair test certain aspects of the experiment will have to be kept the same whilst one key variable is changed. I have chosen to vary the concentration of the sugar solution. This will give me a varied set of results from which I hope to make a decent conclusion. If any of the non-variables below are not kept constant it would mean it would not be a fair test. For instance if one of the potato chips was 1cm longer the surface area of the chip would be larger and there would therefore be more space for osmosis to occur. Doing all the tests at one temperature will control the temperature.
1. For the purpose of my experiment I am going to do all the...