I need freaking science help! someone nice.. please help me?

Question

ok..so we did all this stuff to an egg in a lab..we put it in vinigar and it got squishy then we put it in corn syrup and it got crinkled and stuff. then we put it in water and it turned squishy again..did osmosis or diffusion take place...and y?? i dont get y any of this stuff happened..lol..please help me

Answer 1

Osmosis b/c it is the movement of water across a membrane. Diffusion involves no membrane...think of spraying perfume in a room...eventually everyone would smell it.  That is diffusion.

Answer 2

If you're asking whether it was osmosis or diffusion, it was osmosis.  Diffusion is when particles of solute distribute themselves evenly through a solution.  Osmosis is when water move across a selectively permeable membrane, such as an egg membrane (I'm assuming these were "naked" eggs with the shell dissolved but the membrane still intact).  The water moves from the less concentrated solution to the more concentrated solution.

When the egg was immersed in a solution that was more concentrated than the interior of the egg, then water would move from inside the egg to outside.  This would cause the egg to get wrinkly, because it was less full of water.

When the egg was immersed in a less concentrated solution, water would move from outside the egg to inside the egg, making it extra full of water and therefore "squishy".