Question

Part A Think about the parts of an egg, and write down why you think it can act as a model of an animal cell. Also write down your predictions of what will happen when you leave an egg in vinegar for three days.​

Answer 1

An egg mostly has 3 parts being the Shell, the Egg white and the Yolk.

This is almost like the animal cell which has three main parts being the Cell wall, the Cytoplasm and the Nucleus.

Similarities that enable the egg to be a model of animal cell:

• Both cell membrane and egg shell are selectively permeable which means they only allow certain things in and osmosis can occur.
• Cytoplasm in animal cell surrounds the nucleus like the egg white surrounds the yolk.
• The nucleus is more or less in the center of the animal cell much like a yolk is more or less in the center of an egg.

When an egg is left in vinegar for three days, osmosis will occur and the egg shell will probably dissolve. This means that because vinegar has a higher concentration of water than the egg, water molecules will move from the vinegar to the egg across the egg shell leading to the egg increasing in size.

As the egg shell absorbs more vinegar, it will end up dissolving.