After eating a salty snack like potato chips, the cells in your mouth become saturated with salt. What happens to the cells in your mouth as they react to the ELEVATED salt environment? a water moves into the cell causing them to burst. b salt moves into the cell causing them to burst. c water moves out of the cell causing them to shrink. d salt moves out of the cell causing them to shrink

Answer 1

When you eat a salty snack like potato chips, the concentration of salt outside your cells in your mouth increases. This creates a hypertonic environment relative to the inside of the cells. As a result, water will move out of the cells in an attempt to balance the concentration of solutes (salt) inside and outside the cells. This loss of water causes the cells to shrink.

Therefore, the correct answer is:

c water moves out of the cell causing them to shrink.