In this egg-citing lab, we asked why and how does a cell's internal environment change, as it's external environment changes. After soaking two eggs in white vinegar for a few days, we take the dissolved-
membrane eggs and place them in new "environments",
sugar water and deionized water. 48 hours later and we observed what changes had happened. In the negative control, or the deionzed water, the egg had expanded in both circumference and mass. In the sugar water, the egg was deflated, dented, shrunk almost 50% of its mass.
The cell's internal environment changes, while the external changes, to create balance throughout the entire cell. This is
diffusion, moving from areas of h
igh concentration to
low concentration until they reach equilibrium. Being submerged into a solution, the ability of the solution is to cause a cell to gain or lose water. The definition of
hypertonic is when there is more solute outside the cell, or in this case the egg. To make the balance equilibrium, the solvent transfers out, causing the cell (egg) to shrink. This is what happened to the egg in the sugar water. On the other hand, hypotonic is when there is less solutes than the inside, resulting the solvent to move into the cell, expanding it.
This lab demonstrates
passive diffusion. The moving from area to area, across the membrane, is what happened in the lab. As stated before, they move from areas of high to low concentration to reach equilibrium. In this lab, the impact was the external change of the egg. Applying what we learned in class, we can apply diffusion in real life situations. When you sprinkle water on to fresh vegetables, it keeps them fresh and hydrated. Water is hypotonic to plants, causing more water to be diffused into the plant than the amount of water diffused out of the cell. When you sprinkle salt onto the road, it dehydrates the plants and eventually kills them. Like how salt makes your lips dry, the same effect happens to the plants. This is due to hypertonic. If I were to test diffusion after this lab, I'd want to try different substances that would or not be diffusible.
In this egg-citing lab, we asked why and how does a cell's internal environment change, as it's external environment changes. After soaking two eggs in white vinegar for a few days, we take the dissolved-membrane eggs and place them in new "environments", sugar water and deionized water. 48 hours later and we observed what changes had happened. In the negative control, or the deionzed water, the egg had expanded in both circumference and mass. In the sugar water, the egg was deflated, dented, shrunk almost 50% of its mass.
This lab demonstrates passive diffusion. The moving from area to area, across the membrane, is what happened in the lab. As stated before, they move from areas of high to low concentration to reach equilibrium. In this lab, the impact was the external change of the egg. Applying what we learned in class, we can apply diffusion in real life situations. When you sprinkle water on to fresh vegetables, it keeps them fresh and hydrated. Water is hypotonic to plants, causing more water to be diffused into the plant than the amount of water diffused out of the cell. When you sprinkle salt onto the road, it dehydrates the plants and eventually kills them. Like how salt makes your lips dry, the same effect happens to the plants. This is due to hypertonic. If I were to test diffusion after this lab, I'd want to try different substances that would or not be diffusible.
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