Final answer:
The student's question concerns an osmosis experiment with potato sticks in varying concentrations of sodium chloride solutions. Understanding the outcomes involves knowledge of osmosis, hypertonic, hypotonic, solutes, and saturation concepts. The molarity of the solutions plays a crucial role in the net movement of water in or out of the potato cells.
Step-by-step explanation:
Understanding Osmosis and Concentration
The question from the student is related to an experiment involving potato sticks left in various concentrations of sodium chloride solution. The concept being explored here is osmosis, which is the movement of water across a semipermeable membrane from a region of lower solute concentration to one of higher solute concentration. When the potato sticks are left in the different sodium chloride solutions, they would either gain or lose water depending on the tonicity of the surrounding solution compared to the inside of the potato cells.
As for the concentrations mentioned -- distilled water, 0.1 mol per dm3 sodium chloride solution, 0.5 mol per dm3 sodium chloride solution, and 1.0 mol per dm3 sodium chloride solution -- these will determine the net movement of water. Distilled water has no solutes, hence it is hypotonic to the cells within the potato, likely causing the potato to gain water and swell. As the molarity of the sodium chloride solution increases, it becomes more hypertonic, causing the potato cells to lose water and shrink.
The saturated solution of sodium chloride at room temperature can be a reference point to understand the maximum concentration of solute that a given volume of water can dissolve. With knowledge of the molar mass of sodium chloride, one can calculate the molarity from the given mass of NaCl in grams per liter of solution.