Osmosis

Question: Osmosis? ? Is osmosis only cause by increased Na+/ Cl- levels on one side of a partially permeable membrane compared to the other or is it caused by sugars as well ... i dont understand if sugars cause osmosis?

Answer: Osmosis is simply the flow of water from high concentration to low concentration - if ANY substance is dissolved in water , then it is less concentrated and so osmosis will occur across a semi permeable membrane. Water moves across a semi permeable membrane because water molecules move and hit the gap in the membrane thus moving through, however only small molecules can fit, so larger molecules such as NaCl cannot pass through, and so the side with those molecules collides less and loses less water - there is a net gain of water from that side due to more moving into it than out. Both sugars and NaCl are large molecules and osmosis will occur.

Question: How does viscosity affect osmosis in a permeable membrane? This is my first time designing my own lab and was wondering if anyone has experience/knowledge on "Osmosis". I'm attempting to determine 'osmosis' in an egg by putting it in various solutions: honey, milk etc... Anyways, would love to hear from you!

Answer: I would expect that the more viscous the substance, the harder it would be for osmosis to occur. Think of it like this, Which one would flow through a filter easier - ketchup or water? Ketchup is highly viscous and will not flow through a filter easy if at all. Water is not very viscous and flows right through a filter. Therefore the more the viscosity, the harder it is for the fluid to undergo osmosis in the permeable membrane.

Question: What is the difference between osmosis and active transport? I know what osmosis is but I'm a bit confused about the active transport bit????

Answer: Osmosis- net movement of water from an area of HIGH concentration to an area of LOW concentration through a selectively permeable membrane.It DOES NOT REQUIRE ENERGY. active transport- movement of molecules and ions across plasma membrane from a LOW to a HIGH concentration. It REQUIRES ENERGY.

Question: Can a reverse osmosis system filter softened water? I am planning to soften my water for all round benifit in the home. I also want to purify my drinking water through a reverse osmosis system. Can these 2 things be used together or can only 1 system be used? If they can be used together can a reverse osmosis system purify softened water safely for drinking?

Answer: Short answer is Yes You can use the RO to filter the softened water. A decent RO system will also have pre and post filters. A 5 to 10 micron prefilter protects the RO filter membrane from being plugged up by particulate matter in the water. An activated carbon post filter improves taste and polishes the RO water. Treated RO water is then stored in a small accumulator (pressure tank with a bladder in it) . Treating water with an RO filter tacks some time and uses water in roughly a 5:1 ratio. Send 5 gallons of water to the RO to get 1 gallon of treated water the remaining water is then sent to a drain. As a result you use RO water for drinking and maybe supplying water to an Ice maker. The unit will treat a gallon or two and store it for use once the accumulator is topped off the RO unit stops treating water. So no water is used when the RO is in standby.

Question: What are the similarities between osmosis and diffusion? I have to do a report on this and make it seem sorta easy. I need 250 words, about one page. But all I have is that osmosis and diffusion both go from an area of greater concentration to an area of lower concentration. The difference is that osmosis uses water, yeah. But is there anything else? My textbook doesn't really give me much of an explanation for what is similar and what is not..Thank you. :)

Answer: They are both passive transport. Other than that, the only similarities and differences are the ones you just stated. I recently studied this in my science class.

Question: How reverse osmosis can remove all harmful material from water ? Some water Purifier machine act in this Reverse osmosis system. They claims that this way almost all harmful material including very small bacteria and viruses can be remove. Can someone show me how and links for more details.

Answer: i dnt knw how but RO systems make my water taste really better...i got mine from here.. http://www.isopurewater.com/ i m totally satisfied with it...

Question: How does osmosis relate to capillary action? More specifically, how does it relate to water moving upwards in a tube? [Which means it would be awesome if you explained how osmosis relates to cohesion & adhesion also!] i'll best answer this tomorrow, please help!

Answer: Capillary action is the result of adhesion and surface tension. Surface tension, in turn, is caused by cohesion. Cohesion is force of attraction between molecules of the liquid. The molecules at the surface do not have other like molecules on all sides of them. This makes them cohere more strongly to those directly associated with them on the surface. This forms a surface "film". It is difficult to move an object through this film or to "cut" or "break" this film. There is a kind of upward pushing force caused by the surface molecules sticking together. This phenomenon is called surface tension. Once this film is broken, the object can move freely in the liquid. Adhesion is the tendency of the liquid to cling to a surface. When placed in a capillary, the molecules along the walls of the tube cling to the wall. This causes an upward force along the walls of the tube. This upward movement of the molecules along the water plus the surface tension which keeps the molecules at the surface as close together as possible, causes the surface of the liquid to take the shape of a round bottomed vessel. This is called capillary action. Osmosis is not related to this, I think. It is more about moving through a permeable membrane and deals with gradients of different concentrations.

Question: What is the similarities between osmosis and diffusion? I have to do a report on this and make it seem sorta easy. I need 250 words, about one page. But all I have is that osmosis and diffusion both go from an area of greater concentration to an area of lower concentration. The difference is that osmosis uses water, yeah. But is there anything else? My textbook doesn't really give me much of an explanation for what is similar and what is not..Thank you. :)

Answer: Molecular diffusion, often called simply diffusion, is a net transport of molecules from a region of higher concentration to one of lower concentration by random molecular motion. The result of diffusion is a gradual mixing of material. In a phase with uniform temperature, absent external net forces acting on the particles, the diffusion process will eventually result in complete mixing or a state of equilibrium. Osmosis is the diffusion of a solvent through a semi-permeable membrane, from a low concentrate solution (high solvent potential) to a highly concentrated solution (low solvent potential), up a solute concentration gradient.

Question: How does osmosis cause the changes in the sizes of the egg yolks? so last week, we did an experiment about osmosis. So we have 3 plates and we maintained the egg yolk not to be broken. We measured the egg yolk's original diameter. Then, we put in the solution A, distilled water, then in B, we had put salt solution, and for C, just water. After a few minutes we measured them again, and they increased un sizes. How did this occur?

Answer: I am sorry but the person above me is wrong osmosis is the transfer of water molcules from high to low Now since A was placed in distilled water meaning just water with nothing added water travels into the egg which have a lower concentration of water molcules B was placed in water with salt. Based on the ammount of salt it is water travels out of the egg into the container of water. for C it could be either because we dont know the conceration of the water.

Question: What is the importance of Osmosis in living organisms? I am writing up an experiment i did on Osmosis, and need to provide as much information as i can on Osmosis. The more information you provide for me on Osmosis, the better. If you have got important information on Osmosis, please post it. Thank you.

Answer: Osmosis drives the flow of solutes across membranes. A great deal of energy is utilized to set up these concentration gradients against osmosis.

Question: Why does distillation require more energy than reverse osmosis? Distillation and osmosis can both be used to obtain water from sea water. Explain why distillation requires a much higher amount of energy as compared to reverse osmosis. Don't tell me to figure it out myself cos otherwise i won't be asking questions here!

Answer: Hey Nessie, the two processes you are talking about are very different, I'll explain how each works and then you'll understand the difference. Distillation is the act of vaporizing a liquid, then re condensing it into a liquid again. In this process, sea water is boiled to make steam. Since water boils at 212 degrees F and salt doesn't boil until reaching over 600 degrees, the salt is left behind, as well as most other materials, such as silt, minerals and anything else that might be floating in the sea water that you can't see. When you use a tea pot over and over again, it starts to get a layer of hardness on the bottom inside the pot, this is the minerals that were originally in the water, and some of the water boiled out in the form of steam, separating it from the minerals. So the mineral content of the water in the pot increases until the water can't carry it any more. At that point it is deposited on the bottom of the pot and it solidifies there. The same thing happens when we distill sea water in a large boiler. The salt and other minerals are left behind in the boiler tank. After about 3/4 of the sea water is turned to steam, the rest is flushed out and the tank rinsed once before being filled with sea water again for another batch. You can imagine how much heat energy is required to do this. The advantage to distilling is you get pure water when you're done as the steam is sent through a coiled tube to cool, which turns it back into water, which is dripped out of the tube into a collection tank. In osmosis, the sea water is forced under pressure through a membrane with extremely tiny holes in it, something on the order of a half micron. The heavier parts of the sea water are not able to fit through the filter membrane, such as salt and some hardness, so they are left behind as well. To force water through this type of membrane requires pressure and time, so when you purchase a reverse osmosis sea water filter for a boat for example, it shows how much battery power is required to operate it and how many gallons you get per hour. The point is the pump uses a lot less power than the boiler, and you are getting water you can drink, although not quite as pure as distilled. You don't need all the heat energy to boil all the water out of the tank. Hope this makes sense. Take care Nessie, Rudydoo

Question: What does scattering salt so that no plants would grow have to deal with osmosis? Haii. So this is in one of my questions for biology. A girl scattered salt over the fields so that no plants would grow. What does this have to do with osmosis? I don't quite understand how it does have to deal with osmosis since there's no water involved in it. Can you help me pls =] Thanks! ~iMishYuu

Answer: Well, osmosis is defined as the net movement of water from a high potential to a low potential across a partially permeable membrane. Water moves into plants through root hair cells. In these cells there are a lot of solutes concentrated (salts, sugars, minerals etc), hence water potential is low. There is plenty of water in soil and little concentrated solutes hence water potential is high. This causes water in the soil to move into the cells via osmosis. Scattering salt alters this. As the salt dissolves into the water in the soil, local concentrations of solute hence rise, thus water potential of the soil is higher than the root hair cells, and so water tends to move from the plants to the soil via osmosis, effectively preventing plant growth in the area.

Question: How do you use a reverse osmosis system for a fish tank? I have a 75 gallon tank and am planning on putting in discus. How do you use a reverse osmosis filter system?

Answer: you don't automatically need one.... In fact i rarely see them, not to say they don't work but know your water first. second Discus are now being breed in straight up tap water and don't need half the water conditioning they use to. So ask were your getting them from if they are in fact breed in city water. If not you may want to move on. An R.O system is just a tank with a membrane, tap water goes threw and gets squeezed threw a .5 to .1 micron membrane into a holding tank. then out a spout to you. Use that water to fill your tank, most people buy small r.o systems and put them under there kitchen sink. Other people to just to a water store and buy 15 gallon jugs of the stuff for 4 dollars. good luck!!!

Question: Is it safe to use Reverse Osmosis return water to water lawn and plants? Is it safe to use Reverse Osmosis return water to water lawn and plants? A lot of water goes back to a drain pipe. Im wandering if I could catch it and use it to water my back yard, instead dumping it back to a drain pipe? ok My under the sink RO system has a return line that is connected to a drain pipe of the sink. Is it OK to redirect that line and save that water for plants? I don know if I can be any clearer. Thnx

Answer: Yes, in most cases the "return" water is not significantly different than the regular tap water.

Question: What is alike about osmosis and diffusion? I have to do a report on this and make it seem sorta easy. I need 250 words, about one page. But all I have is that osmosis and diffusion both go from an area of greater concentration to an area of lower concentration. The difference is that osmosis uses water, yeah. But is there anything else? My textbook doesn't really give me much of an explanation for what is similar and what is not..Thank you. :)

Answer: Did your book not mention something about a "semi-permeable" membrane? Do you know what that is? Your idea that the fact that osmosis uses water makes it different from diffusion is incorrect. Look up the words osmosis, diffusion, semi-permeable, and membrane in Wikipedia or a good dictionary. Which one (osmosis or diffusion) is across a membrane and which one is not? Hint: you can apply energy and get reverse osmosis, which is used to purify drinking water. I have never heard the term reverse diffusion, though it might be used very roughly to describe cleaning up your room.

Question: How does water enter a membrane in osmosis? I know osmosis is the diffusion of water across a membrane. Lipids, which are nonpolar, are hydrophobic and do not dissolve in water. Since the plasma membrane is a phospholipid bilayer, only nonpolar substances can readily dissolve through the plasma membrane. Large polar molecules must travel across a membrane in special hydrophilic (protein) channels. Since water is a polar molecule, does this mean water travels across a membrane through special protein channels?

Answer: Membrane proteins called aquaporins for the channels through which water can diffuse. Concentration of these channels in different membranes differs in different membranes, so permeability differs with the type of cell/membrane.