How Osmosis Affects The Weight Of Potato Chips

Aim: To investigate how duration of soaking affects Osmosis in potato tissue.

Background Scientific Information: In Osmosis is the movement of water from a place of high water concentration to a place of low water concentration through a partially permeable membrane. This osmosis movement will continue until the water potential on both sides of the ppm is balanced. When a potato chip is put in plain water, it will become larger, due to osmosis, as the water potential is more than that inside of the chip, so as a result the potato is storing more water and expands in size. However when salt is added to the solution, the water potential is higher in the potato than in the salt solution so as a result the potato shrinks. The change in potato tissue depends o the substance if any, added to the water. If say sugar were added unlike with salt it would expand.

English: A pile of potato chips. These are Utz-bra...

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This is because sugar is the potatoes fuel that it uses as energy so it will be trying to absorb as much as possible.

Key variables: In this experiment we shall be testing duration of soaking so we shall focus on the change of time and weight of potato. But in order to notice the effect of time on the osmosis rate we must ensure to keep the following variables the same:

Size of chip. These will all be the same thickness as they will be cut by the potato chipper, the length will be measured with a ruler, and cut with a knife.

Weight of chip. All chips will start with the same weight which will be determined using a weighing scale and measured to the nearest 0.1 grams.

Solution concentration. In each case we shall measure 50ml of distilled water and combine it with...