1. Beaker A contains 100 ml of 5% salt solution and Beaker B contains 100 ml of
ID: 195028 • Letter: 1
Question
1. Beaker A contains 100 ml of 5% salt solution and Beaker B contains 100 ml of 2% salt solution. Which solution is hypertonic? 2. Which beaker has the greater amount of solute, salt? 3. If the solution in beaker A was placed in bag made up of a selective permeable membrane and placed in beaker B, what would happen? Explain. 4. Is this process active or passive? Explain. 5. If a potato plug was placed in beaker B and the cells underwent plasmolysis, what does this tell you about the salt content in the cytoplasm of the potato cells.Explanation / Answer
Answer 1.
Hypertonicity is defined as having greater solute concentration, or alternatively, lesser solvent concentration. As such Beaker A with 5% salt is more tonic than Beaker B with 2% salt. Hence solution contained in Beaker A is hypertonic relative to solution in Beaker B.
Answer 2.
Beaker A has the greater amount of solute, salt
Answer 3.
Solvent from Beaker B would go through the selective permeable membrane via osmosis and bring down the concentration of salt in bag, till isotonicity is achieved.
Answer 4.
This process is passive. It does not require energy and is on the ground-root level driven by the chemical concentration gradient which is a result of entropy, stochastic movement and random Brownian motion setting things into equilibrium.
Answer 5.
The salt content in the cytoplasm of the potato cells must have been lesser than the salt content of the solution in Beaker B (that is, lesser than 2%) for water to have gone from the potato cells in the solution of Beaker B, thus leaving the potato cells plasmolysed.
Related Questions
Navigate
Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.