Organic chemistry on osmosis

Question

Your penguin would like to know if his cells (isotonic .9 osM) would swell, remain the same size, or shrink when placed in each of the following solutions: A.) Distilled water B.) .9 M NaCl C.) 3 M glucose And why? Thank you

Answer 1

A. Distilled water the cells will swell. Why?  Because water will enter the cell by osmosis. 

B. In 0.9M NaCl cells will remain the same because the external solution is isosmotic with the cells. 

C. In 0.3M glucose the cells will shrink because water will leave the cell by osmosis because the external water is less than internal water (solute is higher outside than inside).