Egg Diffusion Lab

Egg Diffusion Lab

     In this lab, we asked the question: how and why does a cell's internal environment change, as it's external environment changes? We placed the egg in vinegar for 48 hours to dissolve the outer shell, to make the membrane visible. Then, we measured the circumference of the egg and the mass. After, we put one egg in water, and the other in corn syrup. The corn syrup egg had a 44% decrease in mass, and the circumference had a 26.16% decrease. There was a significant decrease because the water solvent and the sugar solute made the egg diffuse into a high concentration.
     A cell's internal environment changes as it's external environment changes. This change is due to one of the theories of life, homeostasis. Homeostasis is the tendency towards maintaining a stable equilibrium. Passive diffusion changes the internal environment of the cell. Low concentration outside the cell, and high concentration inside the cell is a hypertonic solution.
    This lab demonstrates the biological principle of diffusion. The egg loses water when it is surrounded in corn syrup because it is a hypertonic solution. The egg gets filled with water through the process of diffusion because it is a hypotonic solution.
     Sprinkling fresh vegetables at markets with water keeps them firm and hydrated so they appear fresh and good looking for the buyer. Since water is hypotonic to vegetables, water has fewer solutes and a higher concentration of water than inside the vegetable cells. This makes more water diffuse into the vegetable cells than the amount of water that difuses out of the vegetable cells. More water inside the cells makes the vegetables firm. Roads are salted to melt ice because salt lowers the freezing point of water. Lowering the freezing point makes it possible to take advantage of a lower melting point. As the water and salt dissolves on the road, it forms a salt solution.  Outside of plant cells, this is a hypertonic solution. The hypertonic solution causes the water in the plant cell's cytoplasm to move out of the cell through the process of osmosis. The inside of the cell becomes dehydrated, making the cell and the plant die.
     Based on this experiment, I would like to test a different substance, other than an egg, to see if the substance has the same affect on hypertonic and hyoptonic solutions. I would like to see if the substance also expands when it is placed in water, and if it shrinks when it is placed in sugar water.