1) Do you think large cells and small cells carry out diffusion and osmosis at t
ID: 145507 • Letter: 1
Question
1) Do you think large cells and small cells carry out diffusion and osmosis at the same rate? Why or why not?
2) In a solution of 10% sugar and 90% water, I have placed a simulated cell that contains 30% sugar and 70% water. First, describe OSMOSIS in this situation? What kind of environment is this cell in (hyper, hypo, isotonic)? Explain your answer. If the cell placed in the solution described was an animal cell, what would happen? What if the cell was a plant cell? CAN YOU PLEASE ANSWER ME THESE TWO questions completely
Explanation / Answer
1) For any cell, there will be a surface area and a volume. Now, when a cell size is increasing, the volume of the cell also get increased in comparison to surface area of the cell. In a situation, where volume is high and surface area is low, diffusion / osmosis will occurs at slow rate. On the other hand for smaller cells, the ratio of surface area to volume is large and as a result osmosis/ diffusion will be faster.
2) During osmosis, solvent ( here water) will move from an area where solute concentration ( here glucose ) is lower to higher solute concetration ( glucose) region. Osmosis takes place in presence of a semipermeable membrane. Glucose can not pass through the semiperameable cell membrane, but water can move freely from lower solute region to higher solute region.
So when a cell containing 30% sugar and 70% water is placed in a solution of 10% sugar and 90% water, the amount of dissoved solute or glucose concentration is less outside the cell. Thus the cells are placed in a hypotonic solution as the solute concentraiton is less outside and more inside the cell. In this situation we will expect a net movement of water across the cell membrane. animal cell do not have any cell wall, thus water is coming inside they will burst. On the other hand, plant cell has cell wall, so they can withstand the pressure. As a result plant cell will not die but become rigid and sowllen and this situation is known as turgid.
Related Questions
Navigate
Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.