Shaumozza Desra

Adv C

OSMOSIS EXPERIMENT: POTATO IN SALT AND FRESH WATER

1.1 INTRODUCTION
In this experiment, two potatoes with the same weight will be put in separate beakers.
One beaker will be filled with salt water, and the other will be filled with fresh water. This
experiment is conducted to check how the potato will be affected being in salt/fresh water and
whether or not the water will increase or decrease. The hypothesis is that the potato soaked in
salt water will shrink whilst the one soaked in fresh water will stay the same.
1.2 PROCEDURE
First thing to do when conducting an experiment is to know what experiment is going
to be done as well as the procedure. Since experimenting on potatoes was already settled, the
next step was to get the items needed to go through with the procedure. The experiment will
require a potato, salt, three beakers, and a graduated cylinder.
And now on to how to do the experiment;
1. First off, decide the measurements that will be used for the experiment. For this
experiment, the measurement of the water is 250 ml, the weight of the potato is
0,3 kg, and the amount of salt used is 2 teaspoons. So make sure all that is ready
for the experiment.
2. Take the potato and cut it in half. Measure each half on a scale and make sure that
they are of the same weight. If not, cute some bits off the edges of the potato to
make the heavier half weigh the same as the other.
3. After having finished cutting the potato in half, put each half in a separate beaker.
Measure 250 ml of water in the graduated cylinder (the measures are more
accurate than a beaker) and make sure it's the right amount. Afterwards, pour the
water from the graduated cylinder and into one of the beakers. Do the same for the
other beaker.
4. Once the potato and water are in, measure two teaspoons of salt and put it in one
of the beakers. Afterwards, stir the salt in the beaker using a spoon. Make sure to

Shaumozza Desra
Adv C
remember which beaker contains the salt and which doesn't. To be safe, labelling
which beaker contains the salt would be best.
5. Now that everything is set, set a timer for 60 minutes. While waiting, the potato
will react to the fresh/salt water around them.
6. Once the time is up, check the potatoes and analyze the results.
7. Take the two potatoes and measure them again. See how their weight has
changed/not changed. Also, try to feel the potato. One is firmer than the other, also
compare them both to a potato that hasn't been experimented on.
8. After taking the potatoes out, pour the water from the beakers into the graduated
cylinder to check if the water increased/decreased. Do this to both beakers.
1.3 DATA TABLE
Before

the Soaked in Salt

Soaked

Experiment

Water (2 teaspoons) Water

Mass of the Potato

0,3 kg

(after 60 minutes)
0,25 kg

minutes)
0,35 kg

Volume of water

250 ml

252 ml

249 ml

in
(after

Fresh
60

So from the experiment, what is done is two potatoes with the same weight has been
put in two separate beakers that will soon be contained with water. The weight of the potato
being 0,3 kg and the volume of the water being 250 ml. Two teaspoons of salt has been put in
into one beaker to find out what happens to a potato that is of the same weight when it is
soaking in fresh water and salt water for the same amount of time, which in this experiment
was 60 minutes. According to the table, before the experiment was conducted, the mass of
each half of the potato is 0,3 kg while the volume of water is 250 ml.
After 60 minutes of being soaked in fresh water, the potato that then weighed at 0,3
kg, weighed at 0,35 kg. The fresh water in the beaker was put back in the graduated cylinder
and measured again. As expected, the water has decreased and the volume was 249 ml. The

Shaumozza Desra
Adv C
potato is heavier because the it soaked up water, making the water in the beaker decrease. The
water in the beaker went into the potato because it was hypotonic. Since there is a lot of water
outside the potato and not much in the potato, the water outside the potato went inside the
potato causing the potato to increase in size and weight. This also caused the water to
decrease since the water that was then in the beaker has went into the potato.
As for the potato that was soaked in salt water for 60 minutes, which shrunk, now
weighs at 0,25 kg. Since the potato decreased in weight, that means that the water inside of
the potato has moved out to the water in the beaker, which increases the volume of the water
up to 252 ml. the water inside the potato went out to the water in the beaker because salt was
surrounding the water. Inside the potato is hypertonic, because there is more water to salt
ratio in the potato. On the outside of the beaker, the salt to fresh water proportion was more,
resulting in the water molecules in the potato to come out of the potato and making the potato
itself shrink and decease in size and weight which also caused the water outside the potato to
increase.
In conclusion, the hypothesis was correct. The potato in the fresh water did increase in
size and weight while the potato in the salt water decreased in size in weight. Something that
was not talked about in the hypothesis is the texture of the potato. After conducting the
experiment, the potato soaked in fresh water was much firmer than the potato that was soaked
in salt water. The potato soaked in salt water was less firm and squishier. But the potato that
hasn't been experimented on is much more firm compared to both the potatoes soaked in salt
water and fresh water.