Question

What are active and passive transport..please explain me in layman language

Answer 1

Active transport is the movement of molecules across a membrane from a region of their lower concentration to a region of their higher concentration—in the direction against the concentration gradient. Active transport requires cellular energy to achieve this movement. There are two types of active transport – primary active transport that uses ATP, and secondary active transport that uses an electrochemical gradient. An example of active transport in human physiology is the uptake of glucose in the intestines
Passive transport is the movement of ions and other atomic or molecular substances across cell membranes without need of energy input. Unlike active transport, it does not require an input of cellular energy because it is instead driven by the tendency of the system to grow in entropy. The rate of passive transport depends on the permeability of the cell membrane, which, in turn, depends on the organization and characteristics of the membrane lipids and proteins. The four main kinds of passive transport are simple diffusion, facilitated diffusion, filtration and/or osmosis