Egg Diffusion Lab Analysis
In this lab, we asked the question, how and why does a cell's internal environment change as it's external environment changes? We placed two eggs previously soaked in vinegar to remove its hard shell and put one in deionized water and the other in sugar water. Before placing the eggs in the solution, we measured the circumference and mass. We left the eggs in their solution for about 48 hours, we took them out of their solution and measured their circumstance and mass once more.
1) When the sugar concentration increased, the mass and circumference of the egg shrank. In terms of solvent and solute, there was more solute than solvent in the sugar water and the solvent, water, in the egg went outside of it to try and achieve equilibrium. This process is called diffusion, or in this specific case, passive diffusion. Before we put the egg into the sugar water, the circumference of the egg was 18 cm and its mass was 93.91 grams. After leaving the egg in the sugar water for about 48 hours, the circumference shrank by 27.22% and the mass shrank by 46.89%.
1) When the sugar concentration increased, the mass and circumference of the egg shrank. In terms of solvent and solute, there was more solute than solvent in the sugar water and the solvent, water, in the egg went outside of it to try and achieve equilibrium. This process is called diffusion, or in this specific case, passive diffusion. Before we put the egg into the sugar water, the circumference of the egg was 18 cm and its mass was 93.91 grams. After leaving the egg in the sugar water for about 48 hours, the circumference shrank by 27.22% and the mass shrank by 46.89%.
2) A cell's internal environment changes by more or less solvent or solute going in or out of the cell because the cell need to be able to adapt to the outside environment. The "egg" cell went through a lot of external environmental changes when being placed in vinegar and then water before transferring it to the sugar water or deionized water. In order to accommodate the different external changes, the egg would have to make internal changes. Therefore, when the egg was placed in sugar water, it shrank and when in deionized water, it grew in circumference, but shrank in mass.
3) This lab demonstrates osmosis. Osmosis is the diffusion of water across a selectively permeable membrane. The water diffuses across a membrane from the region of the lower solute concentration the the higher solute concentration until the solute concentration on equal on both sides.
4) Fresh vegetables are sprinkled with water at markets because their cells will take in the extra water and will end up making their cells larger and therefore not so dried out. The water will move from areas of high concentration to low concentration until they've reached equilibrium. Roads are sometimes salted to melt ice because the water has to melt to achieve equilibrium in solute and solvent. This salting causes the plants to lose water because their cells are trying to create equilibrium through diffusion.
5) Based on this experiment, I would want to test what other solutions would cause the "egg" cell to be hypertonic or hypotonic. I would use solutions like lemon water or salted water or even water with baking soda in it. I want to see whether or not there's a pattern of what causes cells to be hypertonic of hypotonic when placed in different solutions.
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