Question

High concentration means there are a lot of particles in the solution. Those particles then move to areas with low concentration. A cell has 10% concentration of salt inside the cell and 50% concentration of salt outside of the cell. Would the salt move in or out of the cell to try and reach equilibrium?​

Answer 1

Salt would not move in this scenario; instead, water would move out of the cell due to the hypertonic solution outside. This movement of water is an attempt to reach osmotic equilibrium, which could lead to the cell shrinking if the imbalance persists.

Step-by-step explanation:

When considering a cell with a 10% salt concentration inside and a 50% salt concentration outside, we're dealing with a hypertonic solution surrounding the cell. Because the surrounding solution has a higher concentration of solute than inside the cell, water will move out of the cell to try and reach equilibrium. This process is part of osmosis, the movement of water across a semipermeable membrane from an area of lower solute concentration to an area of higher solute concentration. In this scenario, salt would not move across the membrane, because in biological systems, cell membranes are typically not permeable to salts. Instead, water molecules will move out of the cell into the hypertonic environment to dilute the external salt solution, potentially causing the cell to shrink or crenate. The cell's environment is crucial for its survival. If cells are consistently in hypertonic solutions, they can lose too much water and become unable to function properly, leading to cell death. This illustrates the importance of tonicity and osmotic balance in cellular environments.