Discussion

Water potential is the tendency of water molecules to move from one region to another through
selectively permeable membrane. It is affected by the concentration of solute in the solution.
Water will always move from a higher water potential area(higher free energy, higher amount of
water molecules) to a lower water potential area(lower free energy, lesser amount of water
molecules). Water diffuses down the water potential gradient. There are two physical factors that
affects the water potential, which are addition of solute and pressure potential (physical
pressure). http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/bdevitt/AP%20Biology%2012/AP_Biology_Handbook.pdf

water potential

= pressure potential

solute potential

Solute potential is always negative as solute molecules lower the water potential. The more
negative the value of solute potential, the higher the concentration of the solution. The value of
distilled water has the highest water potential of zero(=0).
http://www.termpaperwarehouse.com/essay-on/Hypertonic-Hypotonic-Isotonic/45204 Diffusion
of water molecules across a semi-permeable membrane is known as osmosis. The water
molecules move from a low solute concentration region to a high solute concentration region
through a semi-permeable membrane. In other words, the water molecules are moving down the
concentration gradient. Osmosis potential is the tendency of a cell to lose its water molecules.
As a cell is placed in a solution which is more concentrated than the cell, the cell loses water and
causes high osmotic potential whereas as a cell is placed in a solution which is less concentrated
than the cell, the cell gains water and causes low osmotic potential. When the amount of solute in
a solution is equal to the amount of molecule moving in and out of a solution , it is known as
dynamic equilibrium. http://www.studymode.com/essays/Osmosis-And-Water-Potential-47222367.html

Distilled water has higher water potential(lower osmotic potential) than the potato strip.
In other words, distilled water is more hypotonic to the potato strip. Thus, as the potato strip is
placed in the distilled water, the distilled water molecules move from a higher water potential
region to a lower water potential region by osmosis. This causes the mass of potato strip
increases after it was immersed into the distilled water, making potato strips into to be turgid and
hard. When distilled water moves into the vacuole of the plant cell, this causes the volume of
protoplasm to expand, and the cell membrane pushes against the cell wall. This creates positive
Turgor pressure in the cell.
www.mychandlerschools.org/cms/lib6/.../osmosis_and_diffusion_lab.doc In potato strip, the
presence of a cell wall prevents cells from rupturing and exerts an equal and opposite pressure to
that of the protoplasm. This prevents a net flow of water into the cell, therefore there is no further
cellular expansion. In contrast, if the water moves into an animal cell, it will swell and burst
eventually due to the absence of cell wall.(CITATION) In summary, water potential is inversely
proportional to solute concentration. As 0.2 M of sucrose solution has lower solute concentration
than potato cell, therefore 0.2 M sucrose solution exists as a hypotonic solution. Water molecules
in sucrose move into the potato strip, causes the potato strip to swell and the mass of the potato

strip increases gradually. The solute concentration of 0.2M of sucrose is higher than that of the
distilled water which indicates that more water diffuses into the potato strip when it was soaked
in the distilled water than that of the 0.2M sucrose solution.
When the potato strip is placed in an 0.4M, 0.6 M, 0.8M and 1.0M sucrose solutions, which have
a higher solute concentration than the potato strip, the mass of the potato strip decreases. The
potato strips became very soft when they were touched with fingers. This is because the water
molecules moves from potato strips which has higher water potential to 0.4M, 0.6 M, 0.8M,
1.0M sucrose solutions which have a lower water potential. The net movement of water is out of
the potato cell. The pressure potential of the potato cell is zero. Therefore, the water potential is
equal to its solute potential. The protoplasm loses water and shrinks away from the cell wall. The
cell surface membrane is pulled away from the cell wall. This process is called plasmolysis.
Based on the graph, the average percentage mass change of potato strips is zero when the
molarity of sucrose solution is 0.3M. At 0.3M, the water molecules enter and exit the potato cell
by osmosis at an equal rate, thus this indicates the water potential inside the potato cell is equal
to the water potential of 0.3M sucrose solution. The potato strips do not gain or lose water,
therefore there is no net movement of water molecules in and out of the potato cell. The cell wall
is inelastic therefore, it takes very little amount of water to enter the cell to achieve dynamic
equilibrium. The turgor pressure pushes the cell surface membrane against the cell wall to cause
the potato strips become turgid. Potato strips retain its normal shape.
SOURCES OF ERROR
There were some errors encountered during the experiment In this experiment, the potato

strips were allowed to dehydrate by sitting in the open air. This will cause the water in the potato
strips to evaporate and the water potential of potato strips to decrease due to the water molecules
moved from high water potential region to low water potential region. The dehydrated potato
strips were hypertonic in comparison with environment. The solute concentration of potato strips
was increased while the osmotic potential was decreased. Therefore, the potato strips must be
placed into the test tube which is filled with sucrose solutions or distilled water immediately after
weighing process is done. The rest of the potato strips that have not been weighed must be kept
in a closed container. ( Eva Desiree, 2009) http://www.scribd.com/doc/22134677/AP-bio-lab1
It was found that the evaporation of water in the test tubes had increased the concentration
slightly, thus causing the calculations of mass change of potato strips to be affected. A
precautionary step should be taken by sealing each test tube with a rubber stopper to ensure the
concentrations of sucrose solution and distilled water remain the same throughout the
experiment.
http://www.tkgsh.tn.edu.tw/danlin/%E7%8F%AD%E7%B4%9A
%E7%B6%93%E7%87%9F2/%E5%8D%87%E5%AD%B8%E8%BC%94%E5%B0%8E/
%E9%AB%98%E4%B8%80/%E7%8F%AD%E7%B4%9A%E7%AE
%A1%E7%90%86/%E6%95%99%E5%AE%A4%E5%B8%83%E7%BD%AE/%E8%8B
%B1%E6%96%87%E5%AF%A6%E9%A9%97%E6%89%8B%E5%86%8A/%E8%8B
%B1%E6%96%87%E5%AF%A6%E9%A9%97%E6%89%8B%E5%86%8A.pdf

Another precautionary step that should be taken is the skin of potato strips must be peeled off as
the skin of potato strips are impermeable to water. Osmosis cannot occur across an impermeable
membrane. The skin of potato strips must be peeled off to produce a partially permeable
membrane before they are immersed into the distilled water and sucrose solutions.
The potato strips must be immersed fully into the solutions to ensure all cells of the potato strips
are being tested. This precautionary step should be carried out to ensure the accurate
measurements in the final masses of the potato strips. http://www.tkgsh.tn.edu.tw/danlin/
%E7%8F%AD%E7%B4%9A%E7%B6%93%E7%87%9F2/%E5%8D%87%E5%AD
%B8%E8%BC%94%E5%B0%8E/%E9%AB%98%E4%B8%80/%E7%8F%AD%E7%B4%9A
%E7%AE%A1%E7%90%86/%E6%95%99%E5%AE%A4%E5%B8%83%E7%BD%AE/
%E8%8B%B1%E6%96%87%E5%AF%A6%E9%A9%97%E6%89%8B%E5%86%8A/
%E8%8B%B1%E6%96%87%E5%AF%A6%E9%A9%97%E6%89%8B%E5%86%8A.pdf
Factors to ensure a fair experiment
There are some factors that should be kept constant to carry out a fair experiment. First, the
surface area of potato should be kept constant because if there is more surface area between the
cells and surrounding sucrose solution, then there will be more cells in contact with the solution.
Thus, the larger surface area potato strips will cause a larger volume of water to enter or leave
the cell at a given time. This factor will affect the accuracy of the results, so it is important that
the surface area of potato strips to be kept constant. http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=121365
The next factor that should be kept constant is the time of potato strips immersed in the solution. More
water movement will occur if the potato strips are immersed in the solutions at a longer time. The results
of the experiment will be unfair due to the different time taken to immerse the potato strips in the
solutions. Hence, the time of potato strips immersed in the solutions should be kept constant at 25minutes
to obtain the accurate mass measurements. http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=121365

The last factor that should be kept constant is the volume of solution. The volume of solution would affect
the experiment because different volume of solution contains different number of molecules. The
difference in volume of solutions will cause the difference in initial water potential of the solutions. This
will affect the accuracy of the experiment. Therefore, the volume of solution should be fixed in the
experiment. http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=121365