Final answer:
A blood cell placed in a concentrated salt solution would shrink due to water moving out of the cell to balance the solute concentration, creating a hypertonic environment.
Step-by-step explanation:
If you place a blood cell in a beaker filled with a concentrated salt solution, the likely outcome would be that the blood cell would shrink. This happens because the environment around the blood cell is hypertonic, which means that the concentration of solutes outside the cell is higher than that inside the cell. Consequently, water will move out of the blood cell and into the surrounding solution to balance the concentration of solutes, leading to the cell shrinking, an effect known as crenation.
When red blood cells are in a hypertonic solution where the osmotic pressure is greater than that within the cells, there is a higher rate of water flow out of the cells than into them. This causes the cells to lose water and shrivel, impairing their function. The fixed surface area of the cell membrane cannot accommodate the significant volume change, resulting in a visibly shrunken cell.