biology lab - lab 4
How does the paramecium expel excess water?
The excess water is collected into a contractile vacuole which swells and finally expels water through an opening in the cell membrane.
What kind of activity would you expect to see in a the contractile vacuole of a paramecium if you placed it in seawater? seawater is approximately 4% salt, and a paramecium is approximately 1% salt.
Water will move out of the cell to the region with a higher concentration of solute
Why does a paramecium need a mechanism to expel excess water?
When the contractile vacuole stops working it bursts the membrane of the animal, eventually resulting in its death
Define Hypotonic
When the extracellular fluid has lower solute concentration than the fluid inside the cell and the net flow of water will be into the cell
What is a good guideline for when to make a line graph?
a good rule of thumb is when the x-axis has continuous values, make a line graph
Where in the human body does filtration occur?
blood pressure pushes small molecules and ions from the capillaries into the collecting system of the kidney
Explain how substances are separated during filtration
filtration separates molecules based on size -large particles are too big to pass through the membrane -small particles and a solvent are passed through the membrane by pressure
Define selectively permeable membrane
freely allows the passage of water but stops larger particles
What is an example of diffusion?
gases such as oxygen and carbon dioxide move between blood and cells by diffusion
What is the external energy source in the filtration activity?
gravity
In tube "C" a potato core is placed in a hypotonic solution. Will the core shrink, grow, or stay the same?
grow
What is a good guideline for when to make a bar graph?
if the x-axis displays categories, use a bar graph
What is brownian movement?
molecules are in constant motion due to inherent kinetic energy -temperature dependent -the more higher the temperature, the more rapid the movement will be
Define Active transport
requires the cell to expend energy to move the materials
In tube "A" a potato core is placed in a hypertonic solution. Will the core shrink, grow, or stay the same?
shrink
In tube "B" a potato core is placed in an isotonic solution. Will the core shrink, grow, or stay the same?
stay the same
Define osmosis
the diffusion of water across a selectively permeable membrane
Define Isotonic
the extracellular fluid has the same solute concentration as the ell, there is no net movement of water into or out of the cell
In the brownian movement activity if the ink was inside the cell, what would the ink molecules represent?
the ink molecules represent large molecules that can't get through the membrane
Define diffusion
the movement of particles from a greater concentration to a lesser concentration until they are equally distributed
Distinguish between solute and solvent
the particles are the solute, and they are dissolved in the solvent, water
Define osmotic pressure
the pressure that would have to be applied to a pure solvent to prevent it from passing into a given solution by osmosis, often used to express the concentration of the solution
Define filtration
the process of separating suspended solid matter from a liquid, by causing the latter to pass through the pores of a membrane
Intravenous solutions are isotonic with body cells and fluids. A common intravenous solution is 0.9% saline (salt). What would happen to your red blood cells if you received an intravenous solution of distilled water? Which is hypertonic, the distilled water or the red blood cells?
the red blood cells would swell and burst -the distilled water would represent a hypotonic solution
In the brownian movement activity if the water was inside the cell, what would the water molecules represent?
the water molecules represent the cell's plasma membrane that prevents large molecules from passing through
Give an example of active transport in a living cell
water microorganisms have an organelle called a contractile vacuole that collects & pumps out the accumulated water by active transport -this activity requires energy b/c the water is being pumped against a concentration gradient
Define hypertonic
when the extracellular fluid has a higher solute concentration that the cell's cytoplasm and the water will move out of the cell to the region of higher solute concentration