How does osmosis work in animal cells?
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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.
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Animals have a circulatory system that transports fluids, chemicals, and nutrients around within the animal body. Some plants have an analogous system: the vascular system in vascular plants; trumpet hyphae in bryophytes.\n\nRoot hairs are thin-walled extensions of the epidermal cells in roots. They provide increased surface area and thus more efficient absorption of water and minerals. Water and dissolved mineral nutrients enter the plant via two routes. \n\n\nWater and selected solutes pass through only the cell membrane of the epidermis of the root hair and then through plasmodesmata on every cell until they reach the xylem: intracellular route (apoplastic). Water and solutes enter the cell wall of the root hair and pass between the wall and plasma membrane until the encounter the endodermis, a layer of cells that they must pass through to enter the xylem: extracellular route (symplastic). \n\n\nThe endodermis has a strip of water-proof material (containing suberin) known as the Casparian strip that forces water through the endodermal cell and in such a way regulates the amount of water getting to the xylem. Only when water concentrations inside the endodermal cell fall below that of the cortex parenchyma cells does water flow into the endodermis and on into the xylem.\nXylem and Transport \nXylem is the water transporting tissue in plants that is dead when it reaches functional maturity. Tracheids are long, tapered cells of xylem that have end plates on the cells that contain a great many crossbars. Tracheid walls are festooned with pits. Vessels, an improved form of tracheid, have no (or very few) obstructions (crossbars) on the top or bottom of the cell. The functional diameter of vessels is greater than that of tracheids.\n\nWater is pulled up the xylem by the force of transpiration, water loss from leaves. Mature corn plants can each transpire four gallons of water per week. Transpiration rates in arid-region plants can be even higher. Water molecules are hydrogen bonded to each other. Water lost from the leaves causes diffusion of additional water molecules out of the leaf vein xylem, creating a tug on water molecules along the water columns within the xylem. This "tug" causes water molecules to rise up from the roots to eventually the leaves. The loss of water from the root xylem allows additional water to pass throught the endodermis into the root xylem.\n\nCohesion is the ability of molecules of the same kind to stick together. Water molecules are polar, having slight positive and negative sides, which causes their cohesion. Inside the xylem, water molecules are in a long chain extending from the roots to the leaves. \n\nAdhesion is the tendency of molecules of different kinds to stick together. Water sticks to the cellulose molecules in the walls of the xylem, counteracting the force of gravity and aiding the rise of water within the xylem. \n\nCohesion-Adhesion Theory\nTranspiration exerts a pull on the water column within the xylem. The lost water molecules are replaced by water from the xylem of the leaf veins, causing a tug on water in the xylem. Adhesion of water to the cell walls of the xylem facilitates movement of water upward within the xylem. This combination of cohesive and adhesive forces is referred to as the Cohesion-Adhesion Theory.\n\n\nGuard Cells Regulate Transpiration\nIn most environments, the water concentration outside the leaf is less than that inside the leaf, causing a loss of water through openings in the leaf known as stomata (singular = stoma). Guard cells are crescent-shaped cells of the epidermis that flank the stoma and regulate the size of the opening. Together, the guard cells and stoma comprise the stomatal apparatus. The inner wall of the guard cell is thicker than the rest of the wall. When a guard cell takes up potassium ions, water moves into the cell, causing the cell to become turgid and swell, opening the stoma. When the potassium leaves the guard cell, the water
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Water is actually the main component of the cytoplasm of a cel, as well as being used in energy production cycles.  As a small, non-polar molecule, water enters the cell by way of passive diffusion called osmosis.  The semi-permeable membrane means that not just anything can cross it.  The only things that can passively cross the membrane are molecules that are, like water, small and non-polar.  Anything else must be actively transported in, or have a channel protein.
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potato or any cells soaked in HYPERTONIC 10% salt would be shriveled up, wilted or pickled, and lose water, aka dehydrate.  Technical term is PLASMOLYSIS in plants.  Osmosis of water would go from high water in the plant cells to low water in the space between the cell mbn and the cell wall, and into the beaker potato is soaked in, in an attempt to accomplish equalibrium.\n\nPlants soaked in HYPOTONIC pure water get maximum turgur water pressure and are all nice and firm-rigid from osmotic-turgor pressure, so they are not limp-wilted-pickled.
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osmosis\nbecause there is a higher water potential inside the seahorse. the sea contains more salt than the seahorse (suprisingly! Lmao) so there is more water in the seahorse. the water molecules travel down the concentration gradient and so the seahorse loses water. though as it is in the sea i doubt this really bothers it
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Biological Importance of Osmosis\n\nOsmosis and dialysis are of prime importance in living organisms, where they influence the distribution of nutrients and the release of metabolic waste products. Living cells of both plants and animals are enclosed by a semipermeable membrane called the cell membrane, which regulates the flow of liquids and of dissolved solids and gases into and out of the cell. The membrane forms a selective barrier between the cell and its environment; not all substances can pass through the membrane with equal facility. Without this selectivity, the substances necessary to the life of the cell would diffuse uniformly into the cell's surroundings, and toxic materials from the surroundings would enter the cell.\n\nIf blood cells (or other cells) are placed in contact with an isotonic solution, they will neither shrink nor swell. If the solution is hypertonic, the cells will lose water and shrink (plasmolyze). If the solution is hypotonic (or if pure solvent is used) the cells will swell; the osmotic pressure that is developed may even be great enough to rupture the cell membrane. Saltwater from the ocean is hypertonic to the cells of the human body; the drinking of ocean water dehydrates body tissues instead of quenching thirst.\n\nIn plants osmosis is at least partially responsible for the absorption of soil water by root hairs and for the elevation of the liquid to the leaves of the plant. However, plants wilt when watered with saltwater or treated with too much fertilizer, since the soil around their roots then becomes hypertonic.
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Oxygen transfers via osmosis through cell walls  from regions of high concentration (ie, the haemoglobin) to the tissue cells where there is a lower concentration. At the same time the tissue cells release carbon dioxide which lowers the partial pressure creating a diffusion gradient for the the oxygen to move along.
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I don't know if I could explain it to the litlle boy, but I'll explain it to you and you can figure out how to explain it to the little boy. The potato is porous meaning that water can pass through it like a membrane. The idea of osmosis is that it is always trying to equal out the amount of solute in a solvent. In this case the solvent is the water surrounding the boat and the water in the flesh of the potato and the solute is the salt. Water is drawn into the pores in the potato in order to try to make the salt solute to solvent ratio the same both inside and outside of the potato. If left long enough (and assuming the potato doesn't sink) the water inside the boat and the water outside the boat would have the same concentration of salt.
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Water potential is\nψ=ψs+ψp where ψs is the contribution of the solutes (osmotic pressure) and ψp the pressure on that side of the membrane.\n\nψs is always negative, so dissolving solutes lowers the water potential. When there are no cell walls the pressure on both sides of the membrane is the same and thus water potential is equal to ψs.\n\nFor plant or bacterial cells which have walls internal pressure can build up so you have to take it into account if you want to see whether water will enter the cells.
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Yes; think of the cell as a sack filled with stuff surrounded by a semipermeable membrane. Water diffuses through the pores based on its concentration. That is, water goes from an area of great to less concentration. Since the distilled water by definition has no solute and is 100 per cent pure and since the concentration of the water in the cell is diluted by the presence of small particles (almost one percent), water flows from the outside to the inside very quickly. The membrane is stretched so much by the infusion of water that it bursts.
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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.
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Distilled water is pure water so the concentration of solute inside the cell would be greater then outside, forcing the water to move through osmosis into the cell.  This will cause an animal cell to lyse from over expanding and a plant cell will also expand too much and this is called plasmolysis.
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What you describe is the process of osmosis. Osmosis is actually simple diffusion through a semipermeable membrane. The cell membrane is just such a selective permeable membrane. This allows for the movement of water, and controls what can enter and leave the cell. In fact osmosis is the only way water moves through the body. A good example is sweating, the sweat gland does not pump water the human body cannot do that. Instead it pumps salt and urea to the skin surface, and through the process of osmosis water will follow. Osmosis is going from a high concentration of water to a lower concentration of water (thru the membrane)until equib. is achieved.
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because in osmosis/ diffusion, solvent / solute moves across a barier to balance the concentration. since the water is saltier than normal, either water has to come out of the cells to dilute it, or salt has to go into the cells to make them more concentrated. either one is bad for cells, but in terms of osmosis, it is the water that does the moving, leaving the cells dehydrated.
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Osmosis and diffusion are both passive (do not require energy). They both involove the random movement of molecules from a region of high concentration to a region of low. \nWhen someone sprays perfume into the air, the perfume molecules diffuse around their enviroment, thats why you smell it at the other side of the room after a few seconds.\n\nThe differences are that osmosis is the movement of Water molecules from a high concentration to a low concentration through a semi permeable membrane.
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diffusion takes place in a cell and the air.. caused by kinetic energy.. osmosis is the passage of water through a membrane from a higher concentration to a lesser concentration. takes place in body cells and in the leaves of plants...next time do your own homework...
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ANSWER NO. 1\nOsmosis - a definition \n1. Movement of a solvent through a semipermeable membrane into a solution of higher concentration that tends to equalise the concentration on both sides of the membrane. \n2. A process of absorption or diffusion - osmotic adj. \n3. An innovative rock band from Northampton.\n\nANSWER NO. 2\nOsmosis: the movement of water molecules from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration. \nCell membranes are completely permeable to water, therefore, the environment the cell is exposed to can have a dramatic effect on the cell. \nHypertonic Solutions: contain a high concentration of solute relative to another solution (e.g. the cell's cytoplasm). When a cell is placed in a hypertonic solution, the water diffuses out of the cell, causing the cell to shrivel. \n\nANSWER NO. 3\nA fully manageable and complete application made specialy for the paediatric (pediatric) sector.\n\nANSWER NO. 4\nOsmosis is the movement of water through a semi-permeable membrane from a region of low solute potential to a region of high solute potential (or equivalently, from a region of high solvent potential to a region of low solvent potential). The semi-permeable membrane must be permeable to the solvent, but not to the solute, resulting in a pressure gradient across the membrane. Osmosis is a natural phenomenon. However, it can be artificially opposed by increasing the pressure in the section of high solute concentration with respect to that in the low solute concentration. The force per unit area required to prevent the passage of solvent through a selectively-permeable membrane and into a solution of greater concentration is equivalent to the turgor pressure. Osmotic pressure is a colligative property, meaning that the property depends on the concentration of the solute but not on its identity. It is an important topic in biology because it provides the primary means by which water is transported into and out of cells.\n\nBasic explanation of osmosis\nConsider a permeable membrane, such as visking tubing, with apertures small enough to allow water molecules, but not larger molecules, to pass through. Suppose the membrane is in a volume of pure water. At a molecular scale, every time a water molecule hits the membrane, it has a defined likelihood of passing through. In this case, since the circumstances on both sides of the membrane are equivalent, there is no net flow of water through it. However, if there is a solution on the other side, that side will have fewer water molecules and thus fewer collisions with the membrane. This will result in a net flow of water to the side with the solution. Assuming the membrane does not break, this net flow will slow and finally stop as the pressure on the solution side becomes such that the diffusion in each direction is equal. Osmosis can also be explained via the notion of entropy, from statistical mechanics. As above, suppose a permeable membrane separates equal amounts of pure solvent and a solution. Since a solution possesses more entropy than pure solvent, the second law of thermodynamics states that solvent molecules will flow into the solution until the entropy of the combined system is maximized. Notice that, as this happens, the solvent loses entropy while the solution gains entropy. Equilibrium, hence maximum entropy, is achieved when the entropy gradient becomes zero.\n\nExamples of osmosis\nMany plant cells perform osmosis. This is because the osmotic entry of water is opposed and eventually equaled by the pressure exerted by the cell wall, creating a steady state. In fact, osmotic pressure is the main cause of support in plant leaves.\n\nWhen a plant cell is placed in a hypertonic solution, the water in the cells moves to an area higher in solute concentration, and the cell shrinks and so becomes flaccid [pron. flaxid]. (This means the cell has become plasmolysed - the cell membrane has completely left the cell wall due to lack of water pressure