potato cores from the solutions and re-weighed them. I discovered that the three in water had increased in mass and the three in sucrose had decreased in mass. This decrease was due to osmosis.I therefore predict that the potato cores in distilled water will increase in mass because the water molecules will diffuse from the solution into the sap vacuoles of the cells in the core. The water molecules will diffuse across the semi-permeable membrane, because the sucrose concentration is higher in the sap vacuole than in the distilled water. This is shown by the diagram (below left), water molecules enter the sap vacuole of the cell due to osmosis, and make the cell turgid.However, the potato cores in sucrose solution will lose water molecules to the sucrose solution, causing the sap vacuole to shrink and the cell to become flaccid. The water molecules will diffuse because the sucrose solution has a higher concentration than the cell sap. As there are varying concentrations of sucrose solution, I think that the solution with the least concentration will have the cores which lose the least mass; and the solution with the strongest concentration will have the cells which lose the most mass. I think this will occur because the larger the difference in the osmotic pressure, the faster the osmotic diffusion will proceed.MethodA measuring cylinder was taken, and filled with 20ml of distilled water, distilled water was used, as it contained no impurities which could have caused anomalous readings. This water was transferred into a boiling tube, which was labelled and then placed in a boiling tube rack. The above steps were repeated twice, so there were three boiling tubes, each with 0% concentration of sucrose. The measuring cylinder was dried and 4ml of saturated sucrose solution was added, this was emptied into a boiling tube and then 16ml of distilled water was measured into the measuring cylinder and then added to the boiling tube to give a ...
