Method
- First peel potato skin
- Use a cork borer to produce 3 cylinders of the same diameter of potato
- Use a scalpel to trim the length to ~3cm
- Measure length and mass using ruler and balance
- Place each cylinder into a test tube and add 10cm
of 0.5M sugar solution to the first test tube, 0.25M to the second and distilled water to the third - Leave overnight to allow osmosis to take place
- Next remove potato cylinders and gently roll on paper towel to get rid of any surface moisture
- Finally measure length and mass of cylinders again
Results
When the potato is in a low concentration solution the concentration of sugar inside is more than the outside so water moves in via osmosis but when it is less than outside water moves out via osmosis.