Carrying out research - Coursework Example

Note the water collects into the potato chip. The potato chip engorges, and increases in mass (Soodak & Iberall, 1979). Osmosis is the process where water molecules from regions of low concentration (often the solvent solution) to higher concentration (often the solute) through a semi-permeable membrane. In most biological processes, osmosis involves movement of water molecules through the cell membranes of different organisms (Sack, 2005). However, other larger molecules such as the sucrose molecules cannot pass due to their large size.

When cells are placed in distilled water the water molecules pass into these cells, causing them to increase in size and their mass increases. Most cells have a low water potential since they contain many dissolved chemicals. As a result, more water molecules pass through the cell membrane into these cells and less water molecules pass out of the cell. The net increase in water molecules into the cell results in increased cell mass. The process continues until a point where no more water can pass the cell wall, even though the water concentration is uneven.

The cell wall stretches preventing more water molecules from passing into the cell. With the potato chip containing numerous cells, when the chip is inserted into a test tube containing low concentrations of sucrose solution, the chip is more likely to increase its mass. The converse also holds when the chip is inserted in highly concentrations of sucrose solution where the water molecules pass from the cell into the highly concentrated sucrose solution through the cell wall. The cell therefore decreases in size and mass by becoming flaccid (Sack, 2005).

From the above results its evident that increase in the sucrose concentration (from 0 to 60 percent) results to decline in the average percentage increase in the mass of the potato chip. However, when the concentration rises above 75 percent, the percentage increase in the mass of the potato chip is