Activity 5. Tonicity

LABORATORY ACTIVITY 5
TONICITY
INTRODUCTION
For the introduction of your laboratory report, discuss the following terms: osmosis, aquaporin,
tonicity, isotonic solution, hypertonic solution, and hypotonic solution.
Objective: 1. Explore tonicity using potato strips and red blood cells.
EXPERIMENT A: TONICITY AND POTATO STRIPS

Materials: Potato strips, NaCl Solution, Distilled Water, Test Tubes
Procedure
This experiment can be conducted at home and the procedure runs for 1 hour. Prior setup can
maximize your time efficiency. You can use available materials and tools at home instead of the
specified laboratory equipment.
1. Cut two strips of potato, each about 7 cm long and 1.5 cm wide.
2. Label two test tubes 1 and 2. Place one potato strip in each tube.
3. Fill tube 1 with water to cover the entire potato strip.
4. Fill tube 2 with 10% sodium chloride (NaCl) to cover the entire potato strip. NaCl is table
salt. (Note: Percent solutions are grams of solute per 100 ml solvent. Therefore, a 10%
solution is 10 g of salt with water added to make up 100 ml of solution).
5. After 1 hour, observe each strip for limpness (water loss) or stiffness (water gain).
6. Take a picture of the potato strips and include it on your laboratory report for data
presentation. Describe your results.
Data Presentation
Analysis
1. Which tube has the limp potato strip? Why did water diffuse out of the potato strip?
- salt water; because the solution was hypertonic.
2. Which tube has the stiff potato strip? Why did water diffuse into the potato strip?
- fresh water; because the solution was hypotonic.
3. Ocean water is hypertonic to the internal environment of the body. Predict what would happen
to your cells if you consumed large quantities of ocean (salt) water.
- Your body and it's cells would lose water. Water moves out of the cell, and you might die
of dehydration.
EXPERIMENT B: TONICITY AND RED BLOOD CELLS
Materials: compound microscope, 1-2 microscope slides, and cover slips, 3 solutions (0.9%
NaCl, distilled water, 10 % NaCl solution), blood drops
Procedure:
1. Put a drop of blood on a slide, add one drop of isotonic saline, and drop a cover slip onto the
0slide. Observe the RBCs using the high power objective. Make a drawing or take a picture of
your micrograph and write a description of the cells, size, and shape in your laboratory report.
2. Get a fresh slide and 2 more cover slips. Put a drop of blood at one end of the slide, and add a
drop of 10% NaCl to the blood, and put on a cover slip. At the other end of the slide, place
another drop of rat blood, add a drop of distilled water, and a cover slip. Compare the size and
shape of the cells at each end of the slide under the microscope using the high power objective.
Make a drawing or take a picture of your micrograph and write a description of the cells, size,
and shape in your laboratory report.
Data Presentation
Analysis
For each of the solutions you applied to the red blood cells, describe:
1. Whether the solution you applied was isotonic, hypertonic, or hypotonic to the cells;
- The 10% NaCI solution is hypertonic.
2. The net direction of water movement (into the cells, out of the cells, no net movement);
- Out of the cells. The reason this happens is because a hypertonic solution has a high
concentration of solutes compared to the cell. This results in a low concentration of water
in the solution, and therefore water will flow from an area of high to low, and from the
cell to the solution.
3. What happened to the shape and size of the cells.

- The cell shrinks and loses shape.
GENERALIZATION
For all the activities conducted, write a 3-paragraph generalization summarizing the
methods and results, discussing the conclusions drawn, and sharing the realizations
obtained in this activity.
As it can be seen from pictures, there is generally a decrease in mass when a potato is placed in
water containing NaCl (aq) solution. The potato has little solutes, and therefore it is hypotonic
while the salt solution has more solutes. Therefore, it is hypertonic. Water molecules moved
from a region of low concentration to a region of high concentration. The purpose of using five
potato tissues is for the accuracy of the results obtained. The percentage change in mass
calculated increased the increase in salt concentration. At 30 min, all of them showed a decrease
in mass. This is due tote fact that a lot of water is drawn from potato tissue to the salt solution.
As the time increases, the cell is continually losing water; there is no general trend as in others it
increases from 30 minutes to 60 minutes while in others it decreases. Near to the end of the
experiment, the cell increased slightly in mass, though it is still lower than the initial value. This
is because the solution is isotonic, that is, all solution s have attained the same concentration, and
there is no net movement of water molecules from one solution to another.
In the case of a red blood cell, isotonic conditions are ideal, and your body
has homeostatic (stability-maintaining) systems to ensure these conditions stay constant. If
placed in a hypotonic solution, a red blood cell will bloat up and may explode, while in a
hypertonic solution, it will shrivel—making the cytoplasm dense and its contents concentrated—
and may die.
Molecules are constantly in motion as a result of a cell's stored kinetic energy, which causes
them to bump into each other and move in random new directions. Diffusion is the movement of
molecules from an area of where there are many (high concentration) to an area where there are
fewer (low concentration). Osmosis is the diffusion of water through a semipermeable
membrane. It is important to remember that a semipermeable membrane allows the solvent
(usually water) to pass through, but restricts the movement of a solute (a thing dissolved in the
solvent). Water will move across a semipermeable membrane from an area of lower solute
concentration to an area of higher solute concentration. When each side of a membrane has equal
solute concentration, the solution is said to be isotonic and water molecules will be equally likely
to move in both directions across the membrane. In the case of a hypertonic solution, there is
more solute outside the cell than inside the cell. Hypertonic solutions cause water molecules to
move out of the cell and into the region of higher solute concentration. Conversely,
in hypotonic solutions there is a higher solute concentration inside the cell than outside, and
water molecules move into the cell. Whenever possible, water will always move from an area of
high water concentration/low solute concentration to an area of low water concentration/high
solute concentration.

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LABORATORY ACTIVITY 5

EXPERIMENT A: TONICITY AND POTATO STRIPS

3. What happened to the shape and size of the cells.

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