I recently did the osmosis potato experiment, where you cut strips of potato and leave them in different concentrations of sucrose solution overnight. Then you work out the change in mass, and the percentage change in mass.
I need three limitations, and ways to overcome them, the one I already have is the the strip size may vary, and you could use a set size cork borer to ensure they're the same size.
Could someone help me as to what the other two are? As an experiment it doesn't have many, and I'm struggling to see them thanks
Different parts of the potato might have different water potentials to start with. In order to overcome this, you could cut the strips out of the same part of each potato.
Some strips might have 'skins.' These would act as a barrier to reduce the rate of osmosis. You could replace these with strips without skins.
Ummmmmmmmmm...
You might blot them before putting them in the solutions. Inconsistent blotting might lead to some strips being left with more excess water than others. In order to overcome this you could blot them gently and consistently in circular motions.
Control the volume of solution used for each strip.
Anomalous results... you could do repeats and calculate the mean.
potato skin could be left on affecting the results when blotting the chips after osmosis, theres a risk of forcing water out of the cells, affecting the change in mass
I forgot the rest lol, need to look over my notes.
potato skin could be left on affecting the results when blotting the chips after osmosis, theres a risk of forcing water out of the cells, affecting the change in mass
I forgot the rest lol, need to look over my notes.
why does the potato chips need to be the same size?
The overall mass of each chip has to be similar otherwise the rate at which osmosis takes place is affected. The only (seemingly) logical way of doing this is to make them all the same size.
I recently did the osmosis potato experiment, where you cut strips of potato and leave them in different concentrations of sucrose solution overnight. Then you work out the change in mass, and the percentage change in mass.
I need three limitations, and ways to overcome them, the one I already have is the the strip size may vary, and you could use a set size cork borer to ensure they're the same size.
Could someone help me as to what the other two are? As an experiment it doesn't have many, and I'm struggling to see them thanks
I did this practical with beetroot and 12 test tubes had to be thrown away
EDIT: Jesus just realised this post is 10 years old