The Great Salt Lake in Utah is about 13% salt. Human cells are about 70% water. Do you consider it safe to swim there? WHy or why not? (use the word ¨osmosis¨ in your answer)

Question

The salt content is so high that most people float.

Answer 1

Hey! Good question... I know people come from all over the world to swim there, and the state park condones swimming, so I know it’s safe in terms of that.

However, in terms of osmosis...

The lake has a much higher concentration of salt than the human body does. And since we can’t just absorb salt to balance that equilibrium, our cells will actually move water OUT to try to achieve a balance with the lake environment.

remember that osmosis, according to dictionary definition, is “a process by which molecules of a solvent tend to pass through a semipermeable membrane from a less concentrated solution into a more concentrated one, thus equalizing the concentrations on each side of the membrane.”

In this case, the more concentrated solution is the salt lake, with 13% salinity. Through osmosis, our cells will actually lose water to the salt lake, trying to equalize salt and water concentrations on each side.

You’d probably have to swim for a long long time to get dehydrated, but it’s certainly possible.