Effect Of Osmosis On Potato Chips

Effect Of Osmosis On Potato Chips

Osmosis is a special kind of diffusion involving the movement of water through a semi permeable membrane, separating solutions of different concentrations. The water passes from a region of high concentration to a region of low concentration until the two concentrations are equal in water.

Many cell membranes behave as semi permeable membranes, and osmosis is a vital mechanism in the transport of fluids in living organisms for example in the transport of water from the soil to the roots in plants.

I am planning an experiment to investigate the effect osmosis has on potato chips that are placed in different concentrations of sucrose solutions and left for 40 mins. I am going to carry out my investigation twice to improve the reliability of all my results. I am going to name the chips from my first investigation chips "A" and from the second chips "B."

During the two investigations I will ensure as much accuracy as possible to keep the chips A and B of the same size, to weigh them the same way and I will record all results in a table working out averages for the both sets of data.

I predict from this Investigation that the potato chip I place in the tube containing only water will weigh more than it did before and will become firmer as water will have moved into the chip by osmosis. I also predict that a potato chip which is placed in the sugar solution will loose weight and be very soft because water will have moved out of the chip into the sugar solution by osmosis.

Equipment Needed For Investigation

Digital Top Pan Balance (wee scales)

Weighing Boat (wee boat shape)

Cork Borer (long thin metal thingey that is cylinder shaped)

6 Sucrose Solutions containing 0% 1% 2% 4% 6% 8%

6 Boiling Tubes (test tubes)

Boiling Tube Rack

Wax Pencil

Large Potato

Cork Mat

Blotting Paper

For my investigation the first thing I need to do is label all my equipment accordingly. I take a piece of blotting paper and carefully draw a column for each sucrose solution eg 0%, 1%, 2% etc.

I now need to obtain my potato chips so I take the potato and lay it on the cork mat and placing the cork borer on top push it down all the way through the potato. This method avoids injury as if the potato was held in the hand the cork borer could go through and cause injury.

Once I have my 6 chips I lay them on the cork mat and using 1 as a guide trim them all to