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What Does Osmosis Mean?

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Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
Diffusion of water in the membrane
Allan Sunesh Profile
Allan Sunesh answered
Osmosis is a physiological process that takes place when two solutions having different concentration, or a solution and its pure solvent are separated by a semi-permeable membrane.
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
It is the movement of water molecules across a semi-permeable membrane from a region of high water concentration to a region of low water concentration.
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
Osmosis is the movment of water molecules from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration through a sem-permeable membrane!
Kath Senior Profile
Kath Senior answered
Osmosis is a special type of diffusion. In osmosis, the only substance that moves from one place to another is water. Water moves from a region of high concentration to a region of lower concentration. This always happens through a semi-permeable membrane. Many examples of osmosis are found in living systems ~ and the semi-permeable membrane in question is usually the membrane of individual cells.

Osmosis is quite tricky to understand. Although the concentration of water is the issue, quite often you have to think about the concentration of other substances to work out what is going on. If a red blood cell is placed in ordinary tap water, the concentration of the salts in its cytoplasm is greater than in the water. It follows that the concentration of water is greater on the outside of the cell. So, water moves into the cell by osmosis and the cell swells up.

If the cell is placed in a strong salt solution, the concentration of salt is greater outside the cell than inside. The cell inside therefore has a higher concentration of water than the outside. Water passes out of the cell through the cell membrane, and the cell shrinks.

This doesn't happen to red blood cells in the blood as the fluid surrounding them is isotonic with the cell cytoplasm. The concentration of salts and water is exactly the same, so there is no osmosis.

Evelyn Vaz Profile
Evelyn Vaz answered
Osmosis is basically the net movement of water. This is done with the help of a discriminatory porous membrane from areas that are usually of low solute potential to an area that is generally high solute potential. Osmosis is basically a natural phenomenon. On the other hand, it can be synthetically divergent by escalating the force in the part of elevated solute absorption with respect to that in the little solute absorption. The energy per unit region necessary to put off the passageway of solvent throughout a selectively-permeable membrane and into a liquid of larger absorption is correspondent to the turgor pressure. Osmotic pressure is basically a colligative property, which means that the property depends on the absorption of the solute but not on its distinctiveness.
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
Osmosis is a special kind of diffusion which refers to the passage of water through the membrane.

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