Q. 9. Carry out the following osmosis experiment:
Take four peeled potato halves and scoop each one out to make potato cups. One of these potato cups should be made from a boiled potato. Put each potato cup in a trough containing water. Now,
(a) Keep cup A empty
(b) Put one teaspoon sugar in cup B
(c) Put one teaspoon salt in cup C
(d) Put one teaspoon sugar in the boiled potato cup D.
Keep these for two hours. Then observe the four potato cups and answer the following:
(ii) Why is potato A necessary for this experiment?
(ii) Potato A is necessary because it acts as the control for the experiment. Without A we will have no reference to compare the other cases with. We can see that since there is no solute in the hollow part of this potato no osmosis has taken place. Hence, the water does not move from outside to inside of the cup.