How Do Different Concentrations Of Salt Water Affect Osmosis Through Potato Cells

How can a percentage of salt concentration affect potato cells?

Yes, if you put potatoes in 10% salt water (10% NaCl) the potato cells will become plasmolyzed or limp because of water leaving the potato and entering the surrounding solution (osmosis). This is known as a hypertonic solution. Putting the cells in distilled water will make the potato stiff or give it turgid pressure because it will fill the potato. This is considered a hypotonic solution. A solution composed of 0.9% salt will keep potato as is. This is an isotonic solution.

What is the effect of salt concentration on cells?

Hypertonic: the concentration of salt is greater outside the cell than inside. Therefore, the water inside the cell will diffuse by osmosis to the outside, and the cell will shrivel and shrink.
Isotonic: the concentrations inside and outside the cell are the same. No movement of water into or out of the cell will occur.
Hypotonic: the concentration is greater inside the cell than outside. Water will then diffuse into the cell, causing it to swell and possibly burst.

Osmosis - rate of increase and decrease in mass of potato cells?

Osmosis is the diffusion of water across a semi-permeable membrane. When you have two solutions of varying solute concentration, water will always move from the less concentrated solution to the more concentrated solution solution in attempt to balance out the concentrations and reach equilibrium. It's pretty much the same thing as basic diffusion except instead of the solute moving, the water moves.

Keeping that in mind....

let's say you have a potato and you stick it in a tub of pure water. The potato is full of all sorts of solutes (salts, sugars, starches) so the concentration of the potato is obviously higher than the water which has no solutes. -- in this case, the water would flow into the potato in attempt to try and lower the potato's solute concentration and make it closer to the low concentration of the water. Since water is flowing into the potato, the potato would gain mass rapidly.

now lets say you add salt to the solution. the solution surrounding the potato now has some dissolved solutes as well. the difference between the potato concentration and the salt concentration is smaller -- now, water would still move into the potato, but at a slower rate, because less water would have to enter the potato in order for it to match the concentration of the surrounding solution. with a slower rate of water entry comes a slower rate of potato mass increase.

as you add more and more salt to the solution, less and less water will have to move into the potato to reach equilibrium, so the rate of mass increase will continue to decrease as you add salt

if you keep adding salt, eventually the salt solution surrounding the potato will have a higher solute concentration than the potato itself. Now water will have to move OUT of the potato in order to reach equilibrium. as water moves out of the potato, the potato's mass will decrease.

i hope this helps :)

How will salt water affect a potato?

Water would move out of the potato by osmosis because the salt solution has a lower water concentration than in the potato.
So the potato is losing water and therefore it weighs less. :)

How are cells affected by osmosis?

Plant cell under different enviromentsOsmotic pressure is the main cause of support in many plants. The osmotic entry of water raises the turgor pressure exerted against the cell wall, until it equals the osmotic pressure, creating a steady state.

When a plant cell is placed in a hypertonic solution, the water in the cells moves to an area higher in solute concentration, and the cell shrinks and so becomes flaccid. (This means the cell has become plasmolysed - the cell membrane has completely left the cell wall due to lack of water pressure on it; the opposite of turgid.)

Also, osmosis is responsible for the ability of plant roots to suck up water from the soil. Since there are many fine roots, they have a large surface area, water enters the roots by osmosis.

Osmosis can also be seen very effectively when potato slices are added to a high concentration of salt solution. The water from inside the potato moves to the salt solution, causing the potato to shrink and to lose its 'turgor pressure'. The more concentrated the salt solution, the bigger the difference in size and weight of the potato slice.

In unusual environments, osmosis can be very harmful to organisms. For example, freshwater and saltwater aquarium fish placed in water of a different salinity than that they are adapted to will die quickly, and in the case of saltwater fish, rather dramatically. Another example of a harmful osmotic effect is the use of table salt to kill leeches and slugs.

Suppose we place an animal or a plant cell in a solution of sugar or salt in water.

If the medium is hypotonic — a dilute solution, with a higher water concentration than the cell — the cell will gain water through osmosis.
If the medium is isotonic — a solution with exactly the same water concentration as the cell — there will be no net movement of water across the cell membrane.
If the medium is hypertonic — a concentrated solution, with a lower water concentration than the cell — the cell will lose water by osmosis.[2]
Chemical gardens demonstrate the effect of osmosis in inorganic chemistry.