Question

Jamal and Sarah are investigating osmosis in potatoes. The drawing shows their experimental setup. They immersed a firm, freshly peeled potato into a container with a solution provided by their science teacher, Ms. Stewart (Fig. 1). The next day, they observed that the potato had shrunk and softened (Fig. 2). Which of the following BEST describes the nature of Ms. Stewart’s solution, and why the potato shrank?

Answer 1

Based on the information provided, the BEST description of Ms. Stewart's solution is that it is a hypertonic solution. The potato shrank because of the process of osmosis.

In osmosis, water molecules move from an area of lower solute concentration to an area of higher solute concentration across a semi-permeable membrane. In this case, the solution provided by Ms. Stewart had a higher concentration of solutes compared to the potato cells.

When the potato was immersed in the hypertonic solution, water molecules inside the potato cells moved out of the cells, across the semi-permeable membrane, and into the solution. This movement of water caused the potato cells to lose water, resulting in the shrinkage and softening of the potato.

Therefore, the hypertonic nature of the solution led to the loss of water from the potato cells through osmosis, causing the observed shrinkage.