Osmosis 30/3/12

Using figure 1 and figure 2, describe what you think happened to the plant cells in each of the figure.What does it mean by hypertonic and hypotonic?

Figure 1

Water molecules would move into the hypotonic cell, thus the cell would explode. Water molecules would move away from the hypertonic cell,thus the cell would shrink.

Figure 2

Water molecules move into the cell, thus the cell becomes bigger. 




Hypertonic is when water molecules from the surroundings move into the cell. Hypertonic is when water molecules from the cell moves to the surroundings.