Ricardo Aguilera

Per. 5
Mr. Thomas
November 6, 2013
Determining the Concentration of 3 Unknown Solutions
Using the Principles of Osmosis
Purpose: Determine type of tonicity (hypotonic, hypertonic, and isotonic) of

each unlabeled bottle using the principles of osmosis.

Independent Variable: solution A, B, C and the amount of dissolved substances.
Dependent Variable: slices of potatoes
Control Variable: amount of 100 mL of solution, the temperature in the room,

type of potato, and time of soaking the potatoes which was 30 minutes.
Hypothesis: If the solutions are hypotonic in the 3 unknown substances, then they
will absorb some of the liquid and increase in weight.
Procedure: First we constructed a data table and imputed the weight of potatoes A,
B, and C into the graph. Then we measured 100 mL of each solution A, B, C into
three containers. Solution A into beaker A. Solution B into beaker B. Solution C into
beaker C. Then we got each potato sample and placed them in beaker A, beaker B,
and beaker C. Potato D was our control group we didnt soak it in nothing. We
placed them at the same time. We waited 30 minutes in soaking the potatoes.
Finally after 30 minutes we took the slices of potatoes out and weighted each of
them gently.
Data Analysis: We analyzed our data by taking the raw data and determining it with
percent weight change. Which is when we subtract the ending weight from the
beginning weight we started off from then you divide your solution to the beginning
weight. After we got the solution from that we the multiplied it by one hundred
which then gave us our percentage.
Conclusion: To conclude, solution A was a hypertonic to potato A. Solution B was hypotonic
to potato B. Solution C was also hypotonic to potato C. The procedure we did was really
reliable. It helped us on investigating the type of tonicity of the unknown solutions. In the
future some improvements we can do are when we take out the potatoes out of the
solutions not to squeeze them because all the water that was absorbed will be squeezed out
and lose weight. Due to the principle of osmosis, Solution A was hypertonic because it had a
greater concentration. Meaning it had greater concentration on solutes outside the cell than
inside. So the water in the cells of the potatoes flowed out to balance concentration. Further

on solution B and solution C were hypotonic because they had lesser concentration. Meaning
it had a lower concentration of solutes outside the cell than inside the cell. So the water
rushes in cells in the potatoes causing it to expand in weight.