Can you help me on my Biology Homework?

Question

The cell membrane of red bloood cells is permeable to water but not to sodium chloride, NaCI.
Suppose you have these flasks:

Flask x contains a solution that is 0.5 percent NaCI
Flask Y contains a solution that is 0.9 percent NaCI
Flask z contians a solution that is 1.5 percent

To each flask you add red blood cells, whick contain a solution that is 0.9 percent NaCI

Predict what will happen to the red blood cells in flask x, y, and z

hOw do you know what happens i have no idea what to do
please and thank you for your help!

Answer 1

flask x- There will be a net influx of water to the blood cells because there a higher concentration of water outside the blood cells, the cell will expand.
flask y- no net gain or loss of water to the cell. The cells are in equalibrium with the solution. Water will flow in and out, but at an equal rate so there is no net gain.
flask z- there is a net efflux of water out of the cells because there is a higher concentration of water in the cell than in the solution. as a result the cell will shrink.

Answer 2

this was on my test. its a hard question. first thing you can do is read the question over and get that red blood cells are permeable to water..so that means that water can go in and out whenever. but salt(sodium chloride) are a bit bigger like glucose. but remember water follows sodium chloride(salt) what happens in flask x which contains a solution that is .5 percent NaCl would be that the water would be that the water would not be able to get into the red blood cell so it would shrivel up due to the amount of salt which water follow, next flask y which contains .9 percent of NaCl would have salt and water going in and out at the same which would be considered equilibrium. the other flask, flask z would be that the water and the salt would burst the cell due to the water following the salt.

Answer 3

See this:

In biology, a hypertonic cell environment has a higher concentration of solutes outside of the animal or plant cell. Hence, in a hypertonic environment, osmosis causes water to flow out of the cell. If enough water is removed in this way, the cytoplasm will have such a small concentration of water that the cell has difficulty functioning.

A solution which has a higher concentration of solutes than that in a cell is said to be hypertonic. This solution has more solute particles and, therefore, relatively less water than the cell contents.

In Biology, a hypotonic cell environment is an environment with a lower concentration of solutes than the cytoplasm of the cell. In a hypotonic environment, osmosis causes a net flow of water into the cell, causing the swelling and expansion of the cell. This swelling may lead to the bursting of the cell.

In summary, a hypertonic solution contains a higher concentration compared to the cell. Hypotonic means it has a lower concentration compared to the cell. Isotonic is a situation in which the concentrations of the cell and of the solution are in an equal ratio.

In other words, Flask x is hypotonic, so the cell swells, Flask Y is isotonic, so the cell remains exactly the same, Flask Z is hypertonic, so the cell shrivels.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertonic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypotonic

Answer 4

H2O will enter the RBC placed in flask x causing the cells to increase in size due to the increase in fluid volume from the H20. If there is a large enough movement of H2O into the cell then it might explode or lyse. There will be no net movement of H2O in flask Y because the sodium chloride solution concentration is similar in the red blood cells. In flask z H2O will be pulled out of the RBC due to the higher NaCl concentration level in flask z. This may cause the cell to shrink or crenate (shrivel).

Since the RBC cell membrane is impermeable to NaCl (meaning that NaCl cannot pass through) then the only way that the concentration levels can change is through the movement of H2O~Osmosis (type of diffusion)-movement of water molecules. When there is a higher sodium chloride concentration outside of the RBC then water will pass out of the cell in order to equalize the concentrations between to two environments.

Answer 5

even if your teacher didn't directly teach it, it's probably in your text book. hydrophillic = water loving hydro phobic = water fearing (think phobia=fear) 1) using logic, oils are made of lipids, which are hydrophobic (water repellant). dry cleaners also use a hydrophobic molecule. not sure why hydrophobic + hydrophobic = clean, but you can be sure that water against a hydrophobic stain won't do anything. 2) grease = hydrophobic (grease phob=x) assume soap is 2 parts (phob=o+phil=O) it'll look like this oO so = soap grease soap would look like: OoxoO so that hydrophobic molecules attach themselves together. (Phob+phob together because of drycleaner answer above)