Biology Coursework: Osmosis Investigation - page 6
Keywords: biology coursework osmosis potato potatoes sucrose molar mass change
By ruth on 08/11/2006 17:19:48
Level: GCSE Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11)
Page Number: 6 of 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
one the line would lead near so I went through the middle. These points are not significantly away from the trend however but I’d imagine the line of results would follow a more smooth line so I think one is an anomaly. When I looked at the repeats of the 0.4 molar solution two were exactly 0.0% mass change and one was -5.6%, so I thought as the other two were identical I would use this as my average. The -5.6% change in mass result was an anomaly. Other than this I think my data is quite accurate and shows the trend well. The anomalies may have occurred, firstly as all the pieces of potato were in the same boiling tube and one could have been touching another potato more than another, affecting the movement of water particles. Also the potato pieces could have naturally varied a little or had a different density.
I think that my range was a bit wide, and that following the preliminary I should have maybe done more readings around 0.3 to 0.6 molar solutions as then I could have got a more accurate and a more convincing result of the concentration of the potato. The range could have also been extended to experiment every 0.1 molar between 0.0 and 1.0 rather than 0.2. I think I could have done more readings to gain a more precise average. Also as I did it in a boiling tube the pieces of potato were touching which could have affected the process and so next time I think I would do it in a Petri dish as this would be more efficient. I think that some things could have made the experiment not a fair test such as I may have dried some pieces of potato more thoroughly than others affecting the final weight.
I believe my data to be sufficient enough to support my conclusion, as the graph and results follow the pattern predicted, and correspond with what I am concluding.
Further work that could be done to provide additional evidence to my conclusion is if I left the potato pieces for longer in the solutions so that the saturation point could be obtained, which is when the potato would not be able to lose any more water. This would able me to back up my theory that the potato would
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