Question

You made a "cell" using dialysis tubing and a concentrated sugar solution tinted red. You then placed the cell in distilled water in a beaker. When the "cell" has 0% sucrose, did you expect the cell to gain water, lose water, or stay the same?

Answer 1

When the cell has 0% sucrose I expect the cell to stay the same.

Step-by-step explanation:

First of all, this question should not be confused for the statement "When the "cell" has 0% sucrose, did you expect the cell to have gained water, lost water, or stay the same. In this case, the correct answer would have been; gained water.

But, in this question, we are asked what happens to the cells at 0% sucrose concentration. At 0% (no solute) concentration, there is no net movement of water or solute into or out of the cell, because the cell is isotonic to the external environment (distilled water). Osmosis, a special kind of diffusion, is the movement of water, from areas of lower solute concentration to area of higher solute concentration, or from areas of higher water concentration to areas of lower water concentration through a semi-permeable membrane. If the water moves into the cells (hypertonic cells), then the cell gains water and increases in size, but if the cell loses water (hypotonic cell), then it reduces in size