Discussion
In my hypothesis, I predicted that the egg in hypotonic solution would expand and the egg in hypertonic solution would shrink. My hypothesis was correct because the mass of the egg in the hypotonic solution increased from 56.4 to 65.5 grams. On the other hand, the egg in the hypertonic solution shrank from 54.1 to 40.3 grams. Both data show significant drop and increase in mass. My hypothesis was supported by the outcome of the experiment: the hypotonic solution moved inside the egg by osmosis as there is more water on the outside. The coloured water goes through the semi permeable membrane of the cells of the egg and flows inside the egg to balance the amount of water from inside to outside. That’s why the egg expanded in the hypotonic solution. In contrast, when the egg is in hypertonic solution, a solution that contains a lot of particles, the particles have taken up a lot of space in the solution, and water on the outside is less than the water inside the egg. So most water inside the egg flow out to make a balance. Overall, my hypothesis did match with the final result.
We did this experiment to learn the movement of osmosis and observe how osmosis occur in hypertonic solution and hypotonic solution. The independent variables in this experiment are the different types of solutions. The hypotonic solution is the colored water and the hypertonic solution is the corn syrup. The dependent variable is osmosis, the movement of water, which affects the water content inside the egg and the solution. The controlled variable are the two eggs, room temperature and the amount of solutions used. The two eggs used in the experiment are the same kind of eggs and the room temperature where the experiment took place is held at constant because a difference n temperature will affect the result as particles move faster in higher temperature. The amount of solution in the hypotonic and hypertonic solutions are same at 150 mL.
Table 3 shows the beaker containing the colored water solution began with the volume of 150 mL and the level of solution was reduced to 140mL by the time the egg was taken out. The result demonstrates that the egg expanded after absorbing the solution. Another possible explanation for the decrease of solution in the beaker is evaporation. The beaker containing the corn syrup solution also began with a volume of 150 mL but ended up with more volume at the end of the experiment.The beaker had 25 mL more than at the time the experiment began, showing that the water inside the egg flows out to the solution to keep the water particles balanced between the outside and the inside. That concurs with our observation that the egg has shrunk at the end of the experiment.
The experiment was mostly successful. One problem that we realized was the fact that some water might have evaporated during the few days of our lab activity. Evaporation might contribute to one of the reasons why the colored water level went down. Another possible error was that even though the room temperature was kept the same, the temperature of the two solutions varied, as the temperature of the coloured water and the corn syrup could differ. If I could repeat the experiment, I’ll test the temperatures of the solutions as well to ensure more accuracy.
We did this experiment to learn the movement of osmosis and observe how osmosis occur in hypertonic solution and hypotonic solution. The independent variables in this experiment are the different types of solutions. The hypotonic solution is the colored water and the hypertonic solution is the corn syrup. The dependent variable is osmosis, the movement of water, which affects the water content inside the egg and the solution. The controlled variable are the two eggs, room temperature and the amount of solutions used. The two eggs used in the experiment are the same kind of eggs and the room temperature where the experiment took place is held at constant because a difference n temperature will affect the result as particles move faster in higher temperature. The amount of solution in the hypotonic and hypertonic solutions are same at 150 mL.
Table 3 shows the beaker containing the colored water solution began with the volume of 150 mL and the level of solution was reduced to 140mL by the time the egg was taken out. The result demonstrates that the egg expanded after absorbing the solution. Another possible explanation for the decrease of solution in the beaker is evaporation. The beaker containing the corn syrup solution also began with a volume of 150 mL but ended up with more volume at the end of the experiment.The beaker had 25 mL more than at the time the experiment began, showing that the water inside the egg flows out to the solution to keep the water particles balanced between the outside and the inside. That concurs with our observation that the egg has shrunk at the end of the experiment.
The experiment was mostly successful. One problem that we realized was the fact that some water might have evaporated during the few days of our lab activity. Evaporation might contribute to one of the reasons why the colored water level went down. Another possible error was that even though the room temperature was kept the same, the temperature of the two solutions varied, as the temperature of the coloured water and the corn syrup could differ. If I could repeat the experiment, I’ll test the temperatures of the solutions as well to ensure more accuracy.