Onion cells contain 95% water. If you put an onion cell in a 10% saline solution, you would expect:

Question

Group of answer choices

water to enter the cell

water to leave the cell

water to both enter and leave the cell (at the same rate)

salt to enter the cell

not enough information is provided to make a hypothesis about this situation

Answer 1

When you place an onion cell, which is composed of 95% water and thus has a lower concentration of salt (solute), in a 10% saline solution (which has a higher concentration of salt), water will move out of the cell due to the process of osmosis. Osmosis is the movement of water across a semipermeable membrane from an area of lower solute concentration (inside the cell) to an area of higher solute concentration (outside the cell) in order to equalize solute concentrations on both sides.

Therefore, you would expect:

Water to leave the cell.