Q. 93.7( 103 Votes )

Carry out the following osmosis experiment:
Take four peeled potato halves and scoop each one out to make potato cups. One of these potato cups should be made from a boiled potato. Put each potato cup into a trough containing water.

Now
(a) keep cup A empty;
(b) put one teaspoon sugar in cup B;
(c) put one teaspoon salt in cup C.
(d) put one teaspoon sugar in the boiled potato cup D;

Keep these for 2 hours. Then observe the four potato cups and answer the following
(i) Explain why water gathers in the hollowed portion of B and C.
(ii) Why is potato A necessary for this experiment?
(iii) Explain why water does not gather in the hollowed out portions of A and D?

Class 9th NCERT - Science 5. The Fundamental Unit of Life

Answer :

(i) Water gathers in the hollowed portion of unboiled potatoes B and C because the cells of potatoes gained water by endosmosis.
The water moveed inside the cell by osmosis(From higher concentration to Lower Concentration).

(ii) Potato cup A is necessary in the experiment as a ‘control’ for providing comparison with situations created in potato cups B, C and D.

(iii) Water does not gather in the hollowed portion of potato cup A as their is no concentration gradient( differences in concentration of water) as a result of which process of osmosis does not occur thus no water is gathered in the hollowed portion

Water is not able to enter into potato cup D because potato cup D is boiled potato cup. Boiling the potato results in the death of cells as a result the membranes of the potato cells lose their permeability and osmosis doens't occur.

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