Biology-Osmostic Gradient?

smileyxx

Im confused

I'm told that osmosis is the movement of water molecules across a region of high water concentration to a region of low water concentration

But when an animal cell is in a solution that is less concentrated than the cell, the cell will take water in?

Why isn't it the other way round, as water is supposed to move from a region of high concentration ( the cell!) to low concentration (water!)

Please help :)x

norwegianwood

smileyxx wrote: »

Im confused

I'm told that osmosis is the movement of water molecules across a region of high water concentration to a region of low water concentration

But when an animal cell is in a solution that is less concentrated than the cell, the cell will take water in?

Why isn't it the other way round, as water is supposed to move from a region of high concentration ( the cell!) to low concentration (water!)

Please help :)x

Oh god, osmosis= headache!:)

Yes, the cell will take in water, because if a solution is less concentrated than the cell, that means its water concentration will be higher. and osmosis means that the water molecules will always move to the area of lower water concentration.

^ like norweigan wood said.

When a cell is placed in a hypotonic (eg low SOLUTE concentration) it will take in water by osmosis because the cell has a higher SOLUTE concentration.

So yeah, the concentrations are refering to solutes.
High solute= low water
Low solute= high water

Osmosis & Diffusion is an easy enough chapter once you get the hang of it.

MaggieNF

osmosis is the movement of water molecules


so the water outside is obviously more concentrated in water so the water goes into the cell


ahhh i like osmosis

Calum196

Not one person mentioned anything about a semi permeable membrane..... -6 marks for all of you.