Egg Diffusion Lab Conclusion

In this lab we asked the question, "How and why does a cell's internal environment change as it's external environment changes?" To test this, we put two eggs in vinegar for 48 hours. That made the cell membrane degrade. After that we took the two eggs and put one in demonized water and the other in corn syrup. Before we put them in the water and the corn syrup we measured the mass and circumference. After two days, we measured the circumference and the mass again. As the sugar concentration increased, the mass and circumference of the egg decreased. The circumference decreased by an average of 22.94% and the mass decreased by an average of 47.25%. The reason that the egg shrunk is because the corn syrup is hypertonic. This means that there is less solute, or sugar, outside than inside the cell, so the solutes inside want to go from a high concentration to low concentration, but they cannot because of the membrane. Thus, the solvent goes outside, making the cell smaller. A cell's internal environment changes when its external environment changes because the external environment either had more or less solutes than inside the cell. This would make the internal environment to change because of diffusion and how the solutes and solvents always want to be balanced. This would occur because the solutes would not be able to enter or exit the cell, so the solvents need to go from the high concentration to low concentration. This lab demonstrates the principle that states diffusion, which goes from high to low concentrations, and also about hypertonic solutions which shrivel up the cell. Fresh vegetables are sprinkled with water because otherwise, the cells will shrivel up making the fresh vegetables not so fresh and good looking anymore. Salting the roads will make the plants on the sides of the roads shrink because there will be more solutes outside, the salt, which will make the solute inside the plants try and move to the lower concentration, but they will not be able to. During this process, the solvent will passively diffuse to the outside, shrinking the cell. One experiment I would like to test is doing testing a different fruit or vegetable. The reason that I would do this is because I would like to find out if all fruits and vegetables respond like the egg did.