Question

1)Why would you predict that an animal cell, but not a plant cell, might burst when placed in a hypotonic solution?

2)If a bowl of fresh strawberries is sprinkled with sugar, a few minutes later the berries will be covered with juice. Why?

A. Sugar is causing water to move out of the cells. The water mixing with the sugar will form the juice

B. Strawberries contain enzymes to break down the sugar to release the water in the sugar, which mixes with the water on the outside of the strawberries to form the juice

C. Sugar is moving inside the strawberry cells and mixing with the water inside and the juices are leaking out as the cells cannot hold the fluid

D. Sugar is causing the all the strawberry cells to breakdown and release the juice

3)Grocery store owners will frequently spray fresh fruits and vegetables with water to prevent them from wilting or drying out. This loss of water is called what in plants?

A. Turgor pressure

B. Isotonic tonicity

C. Plasmolysis

D. Hypotonic tonicity

4)Strong cell walls and water-filled vacuoles help maintain [1] to help plants to stand upright.

5)For the egg experiment, explain how the tonicity changed when the unshelled egg went into a corn syrup solution and when the egg went into the colored water solution. Describe what was happening in relation to osmosis.

Answer 1

1.The reason is that plant cells can resist the tugor pressure that is generated in the cell when it is placed in a hypotonic solution as water gets inside the cells via osmosis. The tugor pressure is resisted by pushing the plasma membrane against the cell wall as a result of which plant cell does not burst in hypotonic solution.But animal cells lack cell wall and therefore it might burst in hypotonic solution as water gets into the cell via osmosis.

2.Correct answer is :A.Sugar is causing water to move out of the cells.The water mixing with the sugar will form the juice.

Reason: When sugar is sprinkled, water outside the strawberry is less and so water will flow from its higher concentration to its lower concentration via osmosis from the stewberry to outside making the berries covered with juice.

3.Correct answer is :C.plasmolysis

Reason:Plants lose water via plamolysis when placed in a hypertonic solution due to decreased turgor pressure.

4.Strong cell walls and water-filled vacuoles help maintain tugor pressure to help plants to stand upright.

5.In case of corn syrup solution : Corn syrup is an hypertonic solution which will have more solutes and less water than in the egg.The water concentration in corn syrup solution is low.So, water will move out from its higher concentration in the egg to its lower concentration in the corn syrup via osmosis .As a result this, the egg will lose water and become shriveled up.

In case of colored water solution:Colored water solution is an hypotonic solution which has high concentration of water and low solutes in comparision to egg.So, water will flow via osmosis from its higher concentration in colored water to its lower concentration in egg via osmosis.As a result of this, egg will swell and increase in size.