Writing Lab Report on Osmosis

Osmosis Lab Report
Author Name
Institution Affiliation
Introduction
Osmosis is the process in which solvent molecules pass through a selectively permeable membrane and reach an area or place where a solute is present with low concentration. It is an important process in all of the biological systems because biological membranes are semi-permeable, allowing polar and large molecules (ions, and proteins) to pass through them. It should be noticed that hydrophobic or non-polar molecules (lipids and molecules of carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitric oxide, and nitrogen) cannot pass through biological membranes (Voutchkov, 2017).
The purpose of this experiment was to find the isotonic point of potatoes, and for this purpose, they were soaked in different concentrations of salt water and sugar water. Then we used the percent-weight-change to come up with the required results. It is quite easy to determine the isotonic point of an animal cell, as it does not have a cell wall an can easily shrink in the hypertonic solution. However, it was difficult to explore the plant cells, as they contained a tough or rigid cell wall. When they were exposed to the hypotonic solution, their weight increased significantly.
Hypothesis
I hypothesized that the weight of potatoes would increase with the increase of the concentration of salt and sugar in the liquid or water. Thus, it was possible to determine the isotonic point of two different concentrations (hypotonic and hypertonic). If the concentration of water outside the cells was higher, then the molecules of the solution would enter the cells to balance out the concentration, giving rise to the process of osmosis.
Materials or Equipment
1 One dialysis tube, which looks like a piece of cellophane and is usually stored in a Petri dish. The tube does not look tubular until it is soaked in water.
2 Three 250 ml beakers
3 Syringe
4 Scissors
5 Water
6 Thread
7 Sugar or commercial syrup (regular or granulated sugar only).
8 Potatoes
9 1200ml Water
10 Digital weighing scale
Method or procedure
1 We had labeled and prepared three beakers after filling them with water and syrup. They were labeled as beaker #1: water, beaker #2: syrup (commercial syrup or syrup prepared by dissolving 250 g of sugar in 250 ml water), and beaker #3: syrup (commercial syrup or syrup prepared by dissolving 250 g of sugar in 250 ml water).
2 A balance was used to determine the weight of sugar solution along with potatoes, followed by finding out the weight of salt solution along with potatoes.
3 The dialysis tube was divided into three segments, each of which was 10 cm long, and for this purpose, we had used the scissors.
4 All of the segments of the dialysis tube were submerged in a beaker that contained water, till the tube was unfolded completely.
5 Then we folded one end of every segment back on itself (about 1 cm) and tied it tightly using a string. Back-folding helps prevent the cells from leaki...