Biology - Osmosis

OSMOSIS GUMMY BEAR EXPERIMENT

Osmosis Definition:  Osmosis is the movement of water molecules from a region of high concentration to a low concentration. The water molecules move across a semi-permeable membrane. Osmosis is a special type of diffusion.

Hypothesis: I hypothesize that the gummy bear will grow bigger in the sugar water. This is because as the gummy bear is already packed with a lot of sugar, the sugar water will heighten the contents of sugar in total/reach equilibrium. The water gummy will stay in its shape and as for the salt gummy, it will shrink. 

Results: The results came out a little differently from what I hypothesized. In regular tap water; the gummy bear grew the biggest. In sugar water, the gummy bear grew, but not as big as the water gummy. In the alt water, the gummy shrunk. Both the sugar and water gummy had a squishy, slimy-like consistency while the salt was bouncy and rubbery. 

The science behind the growing gummy bears (in sugar and water solution) is that the gelatin in gummy bears is kind of like the cell membrane of human cells. When the gummy is placed in the solution, the gummy absorbs the water, water then moves into the gelatin as there are more sugar molecules in the gummy than the water, thus growing the gummy bear double its original size. For the shrinking gummy bear (in a salt solution) the water moves out of the gelatin because there are more salt molecules in the water than the gummy bear itself. 

Tonicity: The gummy bear in the water solution was Hypertonic compared to the salt and sugar solution, the gummy bear in the sugar solution was Hypertonic compared to the salt solution but Hypotonic compared to the water solution and lastly the gummy bear in the salt solution was Hypotonic compared to both sugar and salt solution.