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During the following experiment: Take two peeled potato-halves and scoop each one out to make potato cups. Put each potato cup in a trough containing water. Now,

  • Keep Potato-cup A Empty
  • Put one teaspoon sugar in Potato-cup B

We will observe that water gathers in the hollowed portion of cup B. But no water will gather in the hollowed portions of cup A.

Are not both cups examples of hypotonic solutions where the medium surrounding the cell (potato-cup) has a higher water concentration than inside the cell? Why doesn't water enter the cell in the case of cup A?

Please note that I have a basic (9th grade) understanding of osmosis and diffusion.
This question has been bothering me for some time. Please forgive me if this seems like a HW help.
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  • $\begingroup$ What is your idea about this phenomena ? We will not do all the job of answering your question, if you don't show us that you have tried some beginning of explanation, and failed to finish the task somewhere. We are not a free machine to do your work. $\endgroup$
    – Maurice
    Commented May 1, 2022 at 16:28
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    $\begingroup$ What does "hypotonic" or "hypertonic" mean, in relation to plain water, and water with a lot of sugar dissolved in it? $\endgroup$
    – DrMoishe Pippik
    Commented May 1, 2022 at 16:32

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This experiment is not designed to solve why an observation happened. You have not given or even thought about the purpose of the experiment and your question gives doubt that you actually performed the experiment. Now if you want to learn about potatoes maybe you should study them a bit before using them as a raw material in an ersatz experiment. A question: Is a potato permeable to water? Does a potato contain water, what are the colligative properties of the water in the potato? Devise some tests to answer these or some questions that you might have regarding your observations of potatoes. What happens if you place some sugar or salt on a slice of potato just sitting on a plate? Back to the original question. Osmosis without liquid on both sides. Go buy a box of Raisins and some Thompson seedless grapes or some prunes and some plums and ponder them. Remember Chemistry and Physics are what makes the world go round so observe your surroundings carefully and find the answers to thought out questions. After you have figgered it out enjoy the snacks; invite a fellow student over and discuss osmosis.

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