Question

For each situation below, state whether water will move into the cell, move out of the cell, or stay the same.

Answer 1

Water moves from an area of higher water potential (aka. "more water" in simple language) to an area of lower water potential (aka. "less water" in simple language).

For A, cells in carrots have water stored in their cytoplasm, where many soluble substances may be found (e.g. sodium ions). On the other hand, pure water has no other soluble substances other than the water molecules (I.e. H2O). Pure water will thus have a higher water potential as compared to the water in carrot cells, and so, water will move from pure water into the carrot cells via osmosis down a concentration gradient.

B. Corn syrup is water that has high concentrations of sugars, thus it is very likely to have a lower water potential than the cells of carrots. Water will move from within the cells of carrots and out to the corn syrup, down a concentration gradient.

C. The water in carrot cells will stay the same, since carrot cells have the same water potential as the surrounding solution which has the same water potential as cytoplasm.

Hope this helps! :)