What is osmosis, and how does it work?

Answer 1

osmosis is when the tendency of a fluid, usually water, to pass through a semipermeable membrane into a solution where the solvent concentration is higher, thus equalizing the concentrations of materials on either side of the membrane.

Answer 2

How Does Osmosis Work

Answer 3

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I'll try to explain this in an easy way.... Many particles that the cell needs to diffuse (diffuse means "to spread or scatter widely or thinly; disseminate") out and in of a cell. Osmosis specifically refers to the diffusion of water molecules across the cell membrane and the water's movement from the lower concentration of solute to the higher concentration of solute. The other way of saying this is that the water moves from the area of higher concentration of water molecules to the area of lower concentration of molecules in order to reach equilibrium. Anyway, what all of that above mean is that wherever there is less water and another place more water than that place, the "more water" place would flow to the "less water" place. Or diffuse to the "less water" place. For example, if the amount of water inside the cell is a lot less than the amount of water outside the cell, the water would flow in. And vice versa. But if the amount of water inside the cell is about the same as the amount of water outside, there wouldn't be any net flow of water inside or outside of the cell. Also, osmosis is a passive diffusion, meaning that it does not require the cell to use energy (like ATP) in order for it to happen. Osmosis pretty much gives the cell water that it needs to survive, just like every organism out there.

Answer 4

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What is osmosis, and how does it work?

Answer 5

Osmosis is the net movement of WATER molecules from a region of higher water potential to a region of lower water potential, through a partially permeable membrane.

Eg. If I have a cell placed in a dish containing concentrated sucrose solution, the water in the cell will leaves the cell through the cell membrance to the solution as water potential is higher in the cell than in the sucrose solution.

Answer 6

My primitive understanding is that it is just diffusion of water molecules.

That diffusion occurs because of the kinetic energy of particles due to their temperature.

That it is just random motion and naturally works to go from a higher concentration (order) to a lower concentration (disorder).

Answer 7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmosis

Answer 8

"nam anh" beat me to it. He describes it perfectly. Give him his 10 points.