DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY

FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

UNIVERSITI PENDIDIKAN SULTAN IDRIS

SBF3023 PLANT PHYSIOLOGY

GROUP B
LAB REPORT EXPERIMENT 2: PLANT-WATER RELATIONS

NAME MATRIC NO.

RONALD DECK YAMI D20171078135
NUR AINA AISYAH BINTI MAT RADZI D20171078140
SITI HUSNA BINTI ZOLKEPLI D20171078120

Lecturer’s Name: Profesor Madya Dr. Hasimah binti Alimon

Date: 8th March 2019

RESULT
Experiment 4A: Sink or Swim

Hypothesis Findings from experiment

Sink Float Sink Float

Experiment 4B: Salty or Sweet

Prediction Findings from experiment

 Which is denser? What will happen? What has happened? Conclusion
When salt is added
Water+salt Adding salt to to the water, the
the water increases saltwater solution’s
the density of the density becomes
solution because higher than raisin,
the salt increases the sugar + water and
mass without pure water.
changing the volume
very much.

Experiment Lab 2: Determination of water potential of plant tissue

Molarity of The initial weight of pair of The final weight of pair of cylinders
sucrose solution cylinders of potato before being of potato after being immersed in
(M) immersed in the solution the solution
(g) (g)
0.0 0.3159 0.3812
0.1 0.2893 0.3363
0.2 0.3193 0.3596
0.3 0.2983 0.3333
0.4 0.3384 0.3609
0.5 0.3313 0.3343
0.6 0.3635 0.3443
0.7 0.3335 0.2872

CALCULATION
The percentage gain or loss of the original weight (%)

(Final weight - Initial weight) X 100%

Initial weight

Molarity of sucrose The change in weight by percentage

solution (M) (%)
0.0 (0.3812-0.3159/0.3159) X 100%
= +20.6 %
0.1 (0.3363-0.2893 / 0.2893) X 100%
= +16.2 %
0.2 (0.3596-0.3193 / 0.3193) X 100%
=+ 12.6%
0.3 (0.3333-0.2983 / 0.2983) X 100%
= + 11.7%
0.4 (0.3609-0.3384 / 0.3384) X 100%
= + 6.6 %
0.5 (0.3343-0.3313 / 0.3313) X 100%
= + 0.9%
0.6 (0.3443-0.3635 / 0.3635) X 100%
= -5.3%
0.7 (0.2872-0.3335 / 0.3335) X 100%
= -13.8%
 Figure 1: Graph showing the relationship between the change in weight by percentage (%) of the
potato against the concentration of sucrose solution (M).

Based on the graph, when y (the change in weight by percentage) is equal to zero (0) the
concentration of the sucrose solution is 0.51 M
Experiment Lab 2: Cell as an osmotic system

Figure2: Onion, 40x magnification

Figure 3: Rose petal, 40x magnification

 Figure 4: Leaves, 40x magnification

DISCUSSION
Experiment 4A: Sink or Swim
In this experiment, we observed that the penny and the paper clip will sink when it is placed
on the three medium which are the vegetable oil, water and honey. According to the research
on Internet, the density of a penny is 7.18g/cm 3 whereas the paper clip is 1.50g/cm3, which
are higher compared to oil, water and honey. The density of the three mediums are as follow:

Medium Density
(g/cm3)
Vegetable oil 0.93

Water 1.00

Honey 1.42

Table 1 : Density for each medium (source:

https://www.wccusd.net/cms/lib/CA01001466/Centricity/domain/1040/grade
%208%20lessons/LiquidDensityColumnV2.pdf)

Next, the density of a raisin is 0.7g/cm3. However, initially it will sink when it is
placed on the water although the density of water is higher than the raisin. Usually, the water
will produce a bubble onto the surface of the raisin. As the bubbles grow, the raisin floats
with the added buoyant force. The bubble may burst on the surface, allowing the raisin to
sink again. This will happen the same thing when the raisin is placed into vegetable oil but it
will float when medium is honey. It is because the large difference in density between honey
and raisin.

Experiment 4B: Salty or Sweet

For this experiment, we have observed the density of pure water, sugar water and
saltwater. We were poured the food colouring into the three beakers with different colour
which are red, blue and green. Two table teaspoons of salt and sugar were added to the red
water and blue water respectively whereas for the green water will be a pure water. At the end
of the experiment, we have been observed that the raisins were floated in each of the beaker.
This is because the raisin is less dense than the pure water. The sugar water is more denser
than the pure water. As the sugar added to the water, the sugar molecules take the available
space between water molecules, making the solution more dense. Same goes when the salt is
added, making the water density is higher. However, the density of saltwater is higher than
sugar water as we observed on the first picture in the table result for this experiment. The
red water which the saltwater were located at the bottom of the graduated cylinder the green
water were at the very top.

Experiment Lab 2: Determination of water potential of plant tissue

When two solutions with different concentrations are separated by a selectively
permeable membrane, osmosis takes place. Water will pass from the side with higher water
potential to the side with lower water potential. When a plant tissue is immersed in a solution
of higher water potential, water will enter its cells by osmosis. As the plant cells swell and
become turgid, the plant tissue will increase in size. On the other hand, when the plant tissue
is placed in a solution of lower water potential, water will leave its cells by osmosis. In this
case, the plant tissue will decrease in size as the plant cells shrink upon losing water.

In the 0 molar – distilled water solution, the water will enter the potato piece because it is
of a higher water concentration than the liquid inside the cell of the potato piece. As a result,
the potato should increase in weigh. This may also result in the potato piece becoming turgid
as the solution surrounding the potato piece is of a weaker concentration. In the 0.1, 0.2 and
0.3 and 0.4 molar concentrated solution, there will be a smaller amount of change in terms of
the potato pieces’ weight descending. This is because the concentration of the solution
increase but still a hypotonic solution. In the 0.5 molar concentrated solution, only small
amount of change we can see by weight for the potatoes. Thus, we believe that we almost
achieved the balance concentration. In the 0.6 and 0.7 molar concentrated solution, there are
an obvious decrease in the weight of the potato piece. This is due to there being a higher
concentration within the potato cell than of the sucrose solution.

Based on the calculation and the graph, when y (the change in weight by percentage) is
equal to zero (0) the concentration of the sucrose solution is 0.51 M. That means that the
plant tissue is assumed to have a water potential which is equal to that of the solution in
which the plant tissue neither gain nor loses water because there is no change in weight. In
this experiment we want to figure out the concentration of the sucrose solution that can
change the weight/condition of the potatoes whether it would be hypotonic, isotonic or
hypertonic. concentration, the water potential is in equilibrium. From the result, we can
conclude that the solution with concentration below 0.51M are classified as hypotonic
solution as the change in weight of potatoes in these solutions is positive. The solution above
0.51M are classified as hypertonic as the change in weight of the potatoes is negative.
Experiment Lab 2: Cell as an osmotic system

From the Figure 2 in the Result, it shows that there are slightly different at its vacuole.
Before we add the sucrose, the vacuole was big in size or it can be said it fill up the space of
the cell. After adding sucrose and left it for about 5 – 7 minutes, we observed that the vacuole
was shrink and decrease in filling up the space. From Figure 3, a basic of osmosis as we
know is the movement of water molecule. From where? From higher water concentration to
lower water concentration through a selective permeable membrane. From the basic
statement, we can deduce that before adding the sucrose, the vacuole was remain on it size
but after adding the sucrose the vacuole was shrink this is because the theory of osmosis. The
reason why the vacuole shrinks in size because there is high water concentration inside the
cell and low water concentration outside of the cell thus water leave the cell making the
vacuole shrink. This shrink phenomenon is called plasmolysis.

Plasmolysis is when plant cells lose water after being placed in a solution that has a
higher concentration of solutes than the cell does. This is known as a hypertonic solution but
in this experiment, it differs because we just add the sucrose solution to the plant slide and
left it. This causes the protoplasm, all the material on the inside of the cell, to shrink away
from the cell wall. That’s why we can see the vacuole shrunken but other protoplasm we
cannot see because we only used microscope not electron microscope.

CONCLUSION
Density is a measure of how much matter, or mass(m), takes up a certain amount of space, or
volume(v). The formula for density is D=m/v or density equals mass divided by volume. The
relationship between mass and volume is direct because as mass increases so does volume.
This means that when the relationship is put on a graph the line with be straight, or a best-fit
line. An example of density would be the density of water, which is 1.000 g/cm 3. From the
Experiment Lab 2: Cell as an osmotic system, we now learned how does osmosis and
plasmolysis play the vital role for the plant to develops. This shows us that only a simple
process can take a bigger change. This experiment is an easy to understand and the steps is
simple, we think that this experiment can be done at school to give more understanding about
osmosis and plasmolysis of plant to students. Which we know that chapters in plant usually
was hard by them because they cannot see with their naked eyes. Last but not least, the
Experiment Lab 2: Determination of water potential of plant tissue can be briefly
simplified by saying the water potential of the tissue is said to be equal to the water potential
of that sugar solution which does not cause an increase or decrease in cylinder weight is the
solution with concentration of 0.51M (based on the graph). The solution with below 0.51M is
considered as hypotonic while the solution above 0.51M is considered as hypertonic solution.

REFERENCES
 Spangler, S. Seven-Layer Density Column. In Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes:
Unforgettable Experiments that Make Science Fun, 1st ed.; Leibold, D., Ed.; Greenleaf Book
Group Press: Austin TX, 2010; pp 71-75.
Reece, J. B. (2014). Campbell biology (10th ed.). Boston: Pearson.