Investigation: The Effect of Salt on a Potato. The slices soaked in salt water should have lost weight due to osmosis (remind students that “salt sucks”). The ones soaked in distilled water will gain weight, because the cells of the potato have more solutes.
Another common inquiry is “Why does a potato lose mass in salt water?”.
One way to consider this is the potato will lose mass because the water particles in the potato move out to the concentrated sugar since there are more water molecules in the potato(From higher water potential to lower water potential). In this manner, why do potatoes lose weight in salt water? Investigation: The Effect of Salt on a Potato. The slices soaked in salt water should have lost weight due to osmosis (remind students that “salt sucks”). The ones soaked in distilled water will gain weight, because the.
Why does salt water make a potato lose weight?
Relating this to the potato chips: basically, as the concentration of salt in each solution increases, the water in that solution is less able to move to the potato, causing water from the potato to move to the solution, decreasing its length, weight and width .
One of the next things we asked ourselves was; why do potatoes gain weight when soaked in distilled water?
The answer is that the ones soaked in distilled water will gain weight, because the cells of the potato have more solutes . You will need enough scales to weigh the potatoes.
Why does a potato shrink in salt water?
The shrinking and expanding of the potato strips is due to osmosis . Potatoes are made of cells, and their cell walls act as semipermeable membranes. The 0 grams solution contains less salts and more water than the potato cells (which have more salts and less water).
One common answer is, a large number of salt entered the cells of the potato, more water exits the cell (like in the hypertonic solution) causing the cell to snivel or die causing the potato to shrink. In this experiment it says from the table that the mass of the potato decreases by 1g. Which is not supposed to happen in this experiment.
If the potato is in a high concentration salt solution, the potato mass will decrease because the potato is less concentrated than the salt solution, and the water will move through the partially permeable membrane into the stronger solution .
You should be wondering “What happens to a potato in a salt solution?”
The answer was The water from inside the potato moves out of the potato cells to the salt solution, which causes the potato cells to lose turgor pressure. Which solutions are hypotonic to the potato? If the potato is placed in a sucrose solution 0.1 or 0.2, then it will be hypotonic.
Why do potato strips shrink when salt is added to them?
If the salt concentration in the cup is higher than inside the potato cells, water moves out of the potato into the cup. This leads to shrinkage of the potato cells, which explains why the potato strips get smaller in length and diameter. Due to the shrinking of the potato cells the potato strip also becomes less rigid .
A frequent query we ran across in our research was “How does salt make a potato strip bigger?”.
One frequent answer is, the incoming water in the potato cells pushes on the cell walls and makes the cells bigger. As a result the whole potato strip gets bigger . The opposite is the case in the higher concentration salt solutions. If the salt concentration in the cup is higher than inside the potato cells, water moves out of the potato into the cup.
What happens to the mass of a potato during osmosis?
Through the process of Osmosis, water will move from a region of high water potential (‘concentration’) to low water potential. Therefore, water will slowly leave the cells of the potato and enter the sugar solution in an attempt to reach equilibrium and the potato will therefore lose mass .