Saturday, November 5, 2011
How to explain osmosis and diffusion?
Osmosis is when the water travels from one side of a membrane to another because it wants to dilute the side that has a lot of particles (solutes). The water will always travel from the side that has the least amount of particles to the side with the most. Or you could say the water always travels from the side that has the MOST water to the side that has the LEAST water (in terms of concentration). It's goal is to make the sides equal in concentration. The particles do NOT move, only the water. In diffusion, small particles travel through the membrane therefore the large particles are separated from the small particles. Osmosis deals specifically with the movement of water; diffusion deals specifically with the movement of small particles separating from larger particles. BOTH are forms of diffusion.
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