How do I describe osmosis when you put a piece of potato in salt water or  pure water or in the freezer?
96010
osmosis is the movement of water across a membrane. \nWikipedia on the subject: \n\n"Osmosis is the diffusion of a solvent through a selectively-permeable membrane from a region of low solute concentration to a region of high solute concentration, or in other words, from a high water concentration to a low water concentration. The higher the solute concentration the lower the water concentration will be. The selectively-permeable membrane is permeable to the solvent, but not to the solute, resulting in a chemical potential difference across the membrane which drives the diffusion. That is, the solvent flows from the side of the membrane where the solution is weakest to the side where it is strongest, until the solution on both sides of the membrane is the same strength (that is, until the chemical potential is equal on both sides)."\n\nin short, if you put the potato in fresh water, the potato cells will burst, because water will enter the cells in an attempt to equalize the concentration of salt, etc. inside the cell to what is outside the cell.. if you put a potato in salt water, the cells will shrink, because water will exit them in an attempt to equalize the concentration of salt in the cell and outside of it. I realy don't know what the temperature of water will affect though.
809558
Your cells are always in an isotonic solution which means the solute level (salt and other material) and the water level is about the same. Salt water is a hypertonic solution because the levels of solute outnumber the water. When you drink salt water it causes the water in your cells to leave the try to reach equilibrium. This causes them to shrink and ultimatily make the organism die.
916209
The easiest way to understand osmosis is to think about a bottle of strong perfume.  When you take the lid off the molecules spread out filling the room slowly with smell.  Molecules move from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration.  (that is your answer, I believe)  Another way to understand it is to drop food coloring into a large bowl of water.  It will slowly spread throughout the bowl.
92590
In order to absorb water the concentration of the cell sap in the plant, especially in the root cells, must be at a lower level than that of the watery solution in the soil. When you put any water soluble salt in the water and ‘offer’ it to the plant, then due to the higher concentration of the salt outside; the water from the plant will be ‘sucked out’ resulting in the wilting and then death of the plant. It is called reverse osmosis. The plants and the trees that grow in the salty soil always have their cell sap concentration greater than the surrounding salty water. This is ecological adaptation. In short, the flow of water, in the living plants, is from the solution of lower concentration to the solution of higher concentration. This is Proper OSMOSIS.\nNow tell me can you drink water with very high amount of table salt in it?
761384
Hi, you can find what you want at the following websites:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmosis\nhttp://www.purchon.com/biology/osmosis.htm\nhttp://www.tvdsb.on.ca/westmin/science/sbi3a1/Cells/Osmosis.htm
533292
Yes, osmotically refers to the water and salt ion gradients inside and outside a cell's, or any selectively permeable, membrane. There are three states of osmotic condition. Isotonic = similar inside and outside.  Hypertonic where there is more salt ions outside fo the cell.  Water osmotically diffuses out of the cell.  This leads to cellular creanation Finally, hypotonic where there is more salt ions inside the cell  Water osmotically diffuses into the cell.  This is osmosis leading to cytolysis.
405821
Osmotic pressure refers specifically to the difference in the concentration of elements between two solutions.  If you place a semipermeable barrier between the two solutions, water will flow across that barrier until the concentrations are equal.\n\nIn this way, when you put a freshwater plant into salt water, the fresh water flows out from the plant through the cell membranes, which are semipermeable to water but not salt.\n\nThis osmotic pressure is actually how your kidneys work, to filter fresh water from the fluid you drink and leave a more concentrated solution behind.  See the links below for more details.
930391
Osmosis is the passage of water from a region of high water concentration through a semi-permeable membrane to a region of low water concentration.
856464
Osmosis would literally suck all the water out of the fish's body therefore dehydrating it.  It would be like taking a saltwater fish and putting it in freshwater or visa versa.  The fish may live briefly before it's metabolic pathways shut down due to lack of water.
782152
Through evaporation, the water evaporates into the air and leaves the salt behind.\n\nWhen the water in the air condenses and comes back to earth as rain or snow or dew, it is again fresh water until it flows into a body of saltwater where it again mixes with the salt.\n\nSalt can also be removed through a variety of chemical and/or electrolytic "desalination" processes, but I assume you mean naturally.\n\nThe principal methods of mass conversion of salt water to fresh water (for providing drinking water in a desert environment or onboard a ship at sea) is done through either distillation, in which the salt water is boiled leaving the salt behind and the steam recondensed to form liquid water, or through a process called osmosis where the water flows through a membrane or material that the salt will not pass through.\n\n=== EDIT ===\n\nYes, a bit of research confirms that the principal method of converting saltwater to freshawater onboard a ship is either a flash-type evaporator (primarily used on older ships and nuclear powered ships) or a reverse-osmosis plant (used on more modern ships).  Both types are also used on US Navy bases where freshwater is not readily available.\n\nThe evaporator basically pre-heats the saltwater to near boiling, and then injects it into a vacuum chamber where it immediately flashes into steam except for a small amount of "brine" left over -- the steam is run through cooled pipes where it condenses into water, and the leftover brine is pumped back overboard.\n\nThe reverse-osmosis uses high pressures to force the water through a membrane which the salt cannot pass through.  Again, the leftover "brine" is pumped back into the ocean since it is just seawater with some of the water removed.
874952
Saltwater is isotonic to a cell assuming that it has a balanced osmolarity for the particular cell.  Fresh water has essentially no ionic component, and as such will cause the cell to take up water in an attempt to balance the gradient.
1039304
Salt is an impurity which increases the boiling point of water.  This causes more heat to be supplied to the potato and thus cooks it faster.
573070
Water, sugar water, then salt water.\n\nSalt dissolves into 2 ions Na+ and Cl- per molecule, whereas sugar only dissolves into one sugar molecue. The greater the number of particles in solution, the lower the freezing point goes.
1108160
The potato is cooked by heat and not by the physical process of boiling.  Once the water reaches a temperature for cooking to begin, it will start to cook, regardless of whether the water boils.  \nThe salt will not change the cooking time.  It may change the time that the cook delays putting the potato in the water, but not the cooking time.\nIf so, the potato may cook slightly faster because of the higher heat.\nBy the way, the water inside the potato is not more salty because the water outside the potato has been salted.
166070
Osmotically speaking, there is a lot more water in the outside surroundings than inside of the vegetables, so the vegetables will want to keep their moisture.  Vegetables tend to wilt when they lose moisture.  Another thing is that the water is cold.  Cold keeps cells intact, which is crisp vegetable.  When you heat a vegetable, it tends to soften.
684151
The freezing point of pure water is 0°C, but that melting point can be lowered by the adding any solvent such as a salt. Depending on the amount of salt the freezing temperature of a saline solution can range from below 0°C to -21.1°C. The frozen solution is a mixture of separate NaCl·2H2O crystals and ice crystals, not a homogeneous mixture of salt and water. This heterogeneous mixture is called a eutectic mixture. \nThe use of ordinary salt on sidewalks is effective because it requires a colder temperature to freeze water and it is a cheaper alternative to other solvents or methods of ice removal.
164354
Both salting and jamming (high sugar levels) use osmosis to preserve food.\nMicrobes cannot grow in these conditions because they lose too much water by osmosis to the highly concentrated solution surrounding the food.