Author Topic: In biology, what do they exactly mean by the water potential?  (Read 1449 times)

Offline Sugar

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Need a definition and an example ;p
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nid404

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Re: In biology, what do they exactly mean by the water potential?
« Reply #1 on: May 16, 2009, 02:00:45 pm »
when a substance has a high water potential it has more number of water molecules that the solute. e.g dilute solutions. If you have a concentrated sugar solution, u have less water molecules in it, and therefore the solution has less water potential. Hope u've understood. If u haven't i'll try giving u some more practical applications of water potential and osmosis.

Offline Sugar

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Re: In biology, what do they exactly mean by the water potential?
« Reply #2 on: May 16, 2009, 02:07:47 pm »
Okay, so it's like if we have a solution, the more the water molecules in it, the higher will be the water potential of the solution? What does water potential have to do with osmosis? hows the rate of osmosis gonna vary according to the water potential?
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nid404

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Re: In biology, what do they exactly mean by the water potential?
« Reply #3 on: May 16, 2009, 02:17:24 pm »
okay. I'll give u an example of a plant cell kept in water. In this case water outside has a higher potential and will pass thru the cell's membrane and into the cell. It's just the opposite when the cell is placed in a concentrated solution...as in water from the cell moves out.

Osmosis is the movement of water molecules from an area of high water potential to an area of low water potential through a partially permeable membrane(the cell membrane in this case)

Offline °o.O-hash94-O.o°

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Re: In biology, what do they exactly mean by the water potential?
« Reply #4 on: May 16, 2009, 02:22:44 pm »
the answer is this:

definition: the ability of a cell to draw water into itself is called its water potential.

example: pure water has a water potential pf zero. As solutes are added to the water potential fall-it becomes negative.So a concentrated solution has a lower water potential(more negative) than pure water.

when two areas of different potentials are separated by a semi permeable membrane water moves form the less negative area to the more negative area.

This happens when red blood cells are placed in salt solution,water moves out of the cell in salt solution> the cell gets smaller and wrinkled appearance.the movement of water is down the water potential gradient.A water potential gradient is a measure of the difference in water potential between two areas.the greater the difference the steeper the gradient and the faster the movement of molecules along it.

this is little big answer but i hope u'll get it.


(+rep for sure  :D)

Offline Sugar

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Re: In biology, what do they exactly mean by the water potential?
« Reply #5 on: May 16, 2009, 02:23:51 pm »
Thanks to both of you,  that really cleared things up =]
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nid404

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Re: In biology, what do they exactly mean by the water potential?
« Reply #6 on: May 16, 2009, 02:24:53 pm »
most welcome :D