Question

1. If an animal cell that has a 9% glucose solution inside is placed in a beaker with 9 % glucose solution, will there be a net movement?
2. If a plant cell that has a 10% solution inside is placed in a beaker with a 0.5% solution, which way will the water move? What will happen to the cell?


Please answer all.

Answer 1

In these questions, we're mainly focusing on osmosis. In osmosis, Water molecules tend to have a net movement from the region of higher water potential to a region of lower water potential if there's a water concentration gradient. 
Other substances (not water) will flow from a higher concentration gradient to lower too, but since the question is about cells, and cells have cell membrane which is normally semi-permeable, larger molecules such as glucose may not be able to flow through, so only osmosis is applicable. 

So in a solution, there is a higher water potential if the solute (such as glucose) concentration is less, and water molecules will flow away in osmosis. Therefore, question 1 is NO, because both sides (the solution in beaker and the cell cytoplasm) have the same glucose concentration, thus their water potential is the same and water molecules do not have a net flow. Yes, water molecules still flow between these two, but, they don't have a definite direction, like the number of molecules flowing from the left to the right is the same as those flowing from the right to left. 

In question 2, I assume the percentages given is about the solute concentrations, Therefore since there are more water molecules in the solution which has a 0.5% solute (less solute), water will flow from the beaker to the plant cell, due to osmosis. When this happens, the plant cell may gain water, and they may become turgid due to having turgor pressure. They won't burst because cell walls protect the cell membrane.