Question

What is osmosis. Explain the experiment with diagram

Answer 1

Osmosis is a process by which molecules of a solvent tend to pass through a semipermeable membrane from a less concentrated solution into a more concentrated one.

Experiment to demonstrate osmosis:

Requirements:

Petri-dish, water, potato, sugar solution, cork and capillary tube.

Method:

Take a potato tuber, remove its outer covering from one end and cut the same end flat.

Scoop out a cavity from the other end of the tuber running almost up to the bottom.

Fill the cavity with the sugar solution and fit an airtight cork fitted with a capillary tube on the upper end of the cavity (fig. 3).

Place the capillary- fitted potato tuber in the water-filled petri-dish.

Mark the solution level in the tube and watch the experiment for some time.

Observations:

After some time the level of the solution in the tube increases. Mark the level of the solution when it stops to move.

Results:

The level in the capillary tube increases because of the fact that osmotic pressure of the sugar solution is higher than that of the water, and the water moves through the semipermeable membrane of potato from petri-dish into the cavity. So the experiment shows that the phenomenon of osmosis.