Exactly what is osmosis?

Question

In plain english please

Answer 1

It is the ability for a liquid to pass through a seemily watertite skin

Answer 2

Basic explanation of osmosis
Consider a permeable membrane, such as visking tubing, with apertures small enough to allow water molecules, but not larger molecules, to pass through. Suppose the membrane is in a volume of pure water. At a molecular scale, every time a water molecule hits the membrane, it has a defined likelihood of passing through. In this case, since the circumstances on both sides of the membrane are equivalent, there is no net flow of water through it. However, if there is a solution on the other side, that side will have fewer water molecules and thus fewer collisions with the membrane. This will result in a net flow of water to the side with the solution. Assuming the membrane does not break, this net flow will slow and finally stop as the pressure on the solution side becomes such that the diffusion in each direction is equal. Osmosis can also be explained via the notion of entropy, from statistical mechanics. As above, suppose a permeable membrane separates equal amounts of pure solvent and a solution. Since a solution possesses more entropy than pure solvent, the second law of thermodynamics states that solvent molecules will flow into the solution until the entropy of the combined system is maximized. Notice that, as this happens, the solvent loses entropy while the solution gains entropy. Equilibrium, hence maximum entropy, is achieved when the entropy gradient becomes zero.

There was also a movie "Osmosis Jones". It was really cool with real life and animation. It stared Bill Murry as a Zoo janitor.

Answer 3

The term osmosis describes the stream of a solvent by way of a semipermeable membrane from a much less centred answer to a extra centred one. Water is in many circumstances stated as "the suitable solvent," and residing tissue (case in point, a individual's cellular partitions) is the superb occasion of a semipermeable membrane. Osmosis has countless life-conserving applications: it assists vegetation in receiving water, it helps in the upkeep of fruit and meat, and is even used in kidney dialysis. as nicely, osmosis could be reversed to eliminate salt and different impurities from water.

Answer 4

Osmosis- The diffusion of water across a cell membrane; The net movement of WATER molecules from a high concentration to a low concentration through a semi-permeable membrane, until an equilibrium is reached

Diffusion- The movement of substances from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration until equilibrium is reached

Equilibrium- When water concentration is equal on both sides of the membrane

Answer 5

Osmosis: the movement of water molecules from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration.

Cell membranes are completely permeable to water, therefore, the environment the cell is exposed to can have a dramatic effect on the cell.

Answer 6

Osmosis is the net movement of water through a selective permeable membrane from a region of low solute potential to a region of high solute potential (or equivalently, from a region of high solvent potential to a region of low solvent potential). The partially permeable membrane must be permeable to the solvent, but not to the solute, resulting in a pressure gradient across the membrane. Osmosis is a natural phenomenon. However, it can be artificially opposed by increasing the pressure in the section of high solute concentration with respect to that in the low solute concentration. The force per unit area required to prevent the passage of solvent through a selectively-permeable membrane and into a solution of greater concentration is equivalent to the turgor pressure. Osmotic pressure is a colligative property, meaning that the property depends on the concentration of the solute but not on its identity.

Answer 7

osmosis is a special case of diffusion.
diffusion is the movement of particlesfrom a region of high concentration to a region of low concentration - like if someone has perfume on them, and they are then inclosed into a room, the perfume then spreads.
osmosis is the same thing but with water, it's the diffusion of water.
hope that helps...I do have more info but it's a diagram...

Answer 8

Osmosis is the phenomenon of movement of say water molecules from higher concentration to lower concentration. For, e.g in case of a cell placed in a Hypertonic solution (a solution containing higher conct. of solute, then water will move from the cell to outside because water conct. is higher in the cell than outside). Similarly if a cell is put in a hypotonic solution then reverse will happen and if the cell is placed in a isotonic solution then osmosis occurs in and out in same rate bcoz of same water potential on either side.

Answer 9

It is the movement of water molecules across a differentially permeable membrane (a membrane which has holes which only allow some small substances to pass through) from a region of higher concentration (the region where the percentage of water molecules is higher than the percentage of water molecules in the other region) to a region of lower concentration (the region where the percentage of water molecules is lower than the percentage of water molecules in the other region). The movement will continue until the concentraion of water becomes the same in both regions.

I say net movement because there will be movement of molecules from both side to the other one but the overall movement will be from the higher water concentration area to lower water concentration area.

an example: region1 has 8 water molecules and 2 sucrose molecules. region2 has 6 water molecules and 4 sucrose molecules. water concentration in region1 is 80% (8/(8+2)*100%) and in region2 is 60% (6/(6+4)*100%). if there is a differentially permeable membrane in between, water will move to region2 from region1 until the concentration becomes the same in both of them.

differentially permebale membrane is also known as semi-permeable membrane, selectively permeable membrane or partially permeable membrane.

Answer 10

osmosis is kind a movement of water through a membrane from low concentrated solution to the high concentrated solution. one example of this is when your swimming to the sea. the membrane is your cell wall, the fluid in your cell is the low concentrated solution and the salt water is the high concentrated solution. when you swim to the sea from long hours, you will discover that your skin form wrinkles. this is because the water from your cell was escaped because of osmosis. search the web for more infos and dont forget to vote me.

Answer 11

osmosis is the diffusion of water through a cell. Like when you put a drop of food coloring in a cup of water.