Conclusion

My conclusion is that the higher salt concentration in the solution the greater the decrease in mass of the potato will be, the graph I have drawn supports my conclusion. The 10% salt concentration shows that on average the potato loses 2.6% of its overall mass. 20% salt concentration shows a further decrease in mass this time it is an average of 13% overall mass decrease. 30% salt concentration shows an average decrease of 18.8% in overall mass. The 0% salt concentration actually shows a mass increase of an average of 5.4% overall mass if we compare this with the average of 30% salt concentration, which is, an 18.8% overall mass decrease this also supports my conclusion. The graph has a strong negative correlation.

I can explain why there is a mass increase when there is less salt in the solution and why there is a mass decrease when there is a high salt concentration in the solution. I believe it has a great deal to do with osmosis. Osmosis is basically the movement of water from in a cell to outside it or from outside the cell to inside it. The 0% salt concentration and the 5% salt concentration showed a mass increase because there was a higher water concentration outside of the potato cells than inside them. To solve this the potato cells experience osmosis to balance the concentration of water in the cell and outside it. Since there is a higher water concentration outside the cell the water must move into the cell to balance the water concentration. The water goes through the semi-permeable cell wall of the potato cells. Which is a cell wall with microscopic holes in so that water can pass through but nothing else can because it would be too big to fit. In this case that would be the salt particles in the solution. After the water passes through the cell wall the water goes into the cell's vacuole. The cell will take on as much water as is needed to balance the concentration of water until the cell becomes turgid which is when the cell can not take on any more water and expands.

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