Question

1. An animal cell has a 2% salt concentration. It is placed into a solution with a 0.05% salt concentration. What would happen to the animal cell?
A: water will move into the animal cell causing it to shrivel
B: water will move into the animal cell causing it to swell and burst
C: water will move out of the animal cell causing it to swell and burst
D: water will move out of the animal cell causing it to shrivel

Answer 1

Answer: water will move out of the animal cell causing it to swell and burst  (Option C)

Explanation:

When a cell is immersed into a salty solution, the osmotic pressure generated by concentration differences of salt, will make the salt come in due to cell self-protection mechanism of the cell and water will come out, eventually the cell can burst .But since the animal cells has a higher concentration of salt and the solution has a lower concentration osmosis will take place and salt will move from higher salt concentration to lower.