{"id":5988,"date":"2013-06-04T11:51:20","date_gmt":"2013-06-04T11:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/?p=5988"},"modified":"2014-12-02T08:27:00","modified_gmt":"2014-12-02T08:27:00","slug":"solutions-and-diffusion-in-biology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/2013\/06\/04\/solutions-and-diffusion-in-biology\/","title":{"rendered":"Solutions and Diffusion in Biology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overview:\u00a0 What Are Solutions?<\/strong>
\nA solution is a mixture in which molecules of one substance are distributed evenly in another.\u00a0 For example, in a solution of sugar water, molecules of sugar from sugar crystals are dispersed in molecules of water.\u00a0 If sugar is invisible in the solution because the molecules are so well mixed, the sugar is dissolved in water.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0In the solution of sugar water, water is the solvent and sugar is the solute.\u00a0 Water is the solvent in most cellular activities, and that is why water is so important to life.<\/p>\n

What Is Diffusion?<\/strong>
\nAll the molecules in liquids, solids, and gases move constantly, and the movement in liquids and gases are random, called Brownian movement.\u00a0 Observe a drop of food coloring in a container of plain, clear water.\u00a0 The molecules of food coloring disperse randomly throughout the water until they are dissolved throughout the water, coloring it.\u00a0 In this example, the highly concentrated molecules of food coloring have been diffused throughout the water, going from a high concentration to a low concentration.\u00a0 The color in a drop of food coloring is darker and more intense than the resulting shade after it has been diffused in a large volume of water.<\/p>\n

What Affects Diffusion?<\/strong>
\nThe rate of diffusion is affected by the concentration of molecules from higher to lower.\u00a0 Molecules always move from higher concentrations to lower concentrations within a gradient.\u00a0 The rate can be affected by the temperature of the solvent, as well as the pressure of the solvent.\u00a0 A rise in temperature increases the rate of diffusion, as does a rise in pressure.\u00a0 This is because molecules move more rapidly within liquids as they heat and as pressure rises.<\/p>\n

Diffusion through Cell Membranes<\/strong>
\nA cell membrane forms a barrier that allow materials to pass into and out of the cell.\u00a0 Water can easily pass through it, but only some of the molecules that are dissolved in water can get beyond the barrier.\u00a0 Molecules have to be small enough to move through the gaps in the double layer of proteins and lipids.\u00a0 Carbon dioxide and oxygen dissolve in the lipid molecules and easily pass though.<\/p>\n

Concentrations of Solutions and Equilibrium<\/strong>
\nLiving cells are made up of water that flows freely in and out across cell membranes.\u00a0 The concentration of water and solutes across either side of the membrane constantly changes until the cell and its outer environment reach equilibrium.\u00a0 Nutrients enter the cell and are digested, creating waste products that must exit the cell.\u00a0 Consequently, the cell and its environment go in and out of equilibrium.\u00a0 If solutes are the same outside as well as inside the cell, the cell is in an isotonic solution.\u00a0 Blood plasma is a typical isotonic solution to blood cells.\u00a0 In hypotonic solutions, the concentration of water is higher in the solution than in the cell. \u00a0\u00a0Water will flow into the cell and be stored inside the cell to make it isotonic with the surrounding solution.\u00a0 \u00a0In contrast, hypertonic solutions are those in which the concentration of solutes are higher than that inside the cell.\u00a0 For example, cells placed in salt water will shrivel, because the water inside the cells will flow out of the cell to make the solution isotonic.<\/p>\n

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Overview:\u00a0 What Are Solutions? A solution is a mixture in which molecules of one substance are distributed evenly in another.\u00a0 For example, in a solution of sugar water, molecules of sugar from sugar crystals are dispersed in molecules of water.\u00a0 If sugar is invisible in the solution because the molecules are so well mixed, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[500,595,900,903,994,1683],"class_list":["post-5988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biology","tag-diffusion","tag-equilibrium","tag-hypertonic","tag-hypotonic","tag-isotonic","tag-solutions"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5988\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}