Carry out the following osmosis experiment: Take four peeled potato halves and scoos each one out to make potato cups. One of these potato cups should be made from a boiled potato. Put each potato cup in a trough containing water. Now, Keep cup A empty Put one teaspoon sugar in cup B Put one teaspoon salt in cup C Put one teaspoon sugar in the boiled potato cup D. Keep these for two hours. Then observe the four potato cups and answer the following: (iii) Explain why water does not gather in the hollowed out portions of A and D.
Explanation Water do not accumulate in the hollow portions of potato cups A and D because In potato Cup A , there is no concentration gradient that’s why osmosis cannot take place and for potato cup D, the potato cup is boiled in this experiment, which has destroyed the semi-permeable membrane, and hence osmosis cannot take place in this cup also. Final Answer Osmosis requires both semi-permeable membrane and concentration gradient, and these are perfectly shown by this experiment, as the cups are designed in such a way which proves the validation of osmosis requirements.
