Egg Diffusion Lab

1) The mass and circumference of the egg radically decreased when the egg was placed in sugar water for 24 hours. This is because in an effort to balance out the solute concentration, water came out of the egg to balance out the ratio of solute to solvent. The sugar water is a hypertonic solution, as there is a higher concentration of solute outside of the egg cell. In order to lower this high concentration, water had to flow out of the egg cell to equalize the concentrations.

2) A cell's internal environment changes in many ways in reaction to its external environment. Losing or gaining water by means of diffusion is just one of the ways a cell changes in reaction to its environment. Also, when we soaked the egg in vinegar for 48 hours, the egg's membrane was softened and slightly separated from the white and yolk.

3) This lab demonstrates the principal of osmosis and diffusion. The places where there was a lot of solvent but not enough solute went into the areas of higher solute concentration. In the case with the egg cells, water from within the egg flowed out to balance out the high concentration of sugar, causing it to shrink, while when it was placed in pure water, there was actually a higher solute concentration within the egg, causing water from outside to rush into the egg.

4) Fresh vegetables are sprinkled with water at markets because they want diffusion to occur. When diffusion occurs, the water will soak into the vegetables, keeping them juicy and yummy. Roads are salted to melt ice because when there is a higher concentration of solute (salt) outside of the ice, water will rush out to balance out the concentrations, making the melting point of the ice much lower, so that it is easier to drive during the winter.

5) After this experiment, I want to see if the same diffusion process applies for other cells, not just an egg cell. For example, I might test this kind of experiment on a growing plant. Most likely, we will see the same general idea of changes. The cell will probably shrink in sugar water and grow in pure water.