Question 6

A student investigated the effect of surface area on osmosis in potato tissue.

They prepared two identical large cubes of potato tissue, each with side lengths of 30 mm.
One cube was left whole (Sample X).
The other cube was cut into twenty-seven equal-sized smaller cubes, each with side lengths of 10 mm (Sample Y).
Both samples were placed into a highly concentrated sucrose solution of the same concentration.
They measured the total mass of each sample at the start and after 40 minutes.

Potato cubes diagram

The table below shows the results of this investigation:

Potato sample	Number of cubes	Side length of each cube ( $mm\text{mm}$ )	Total mass at 0 min ( $g\text{g}$ )	Total mass at 40 min ( $g\text{g}$ )
X (1 large cube)	1	30	45.0	41.4
Y (27 small cubes)	27	10	45.0	35.1

A student investigated the effect of surface area on osmosis in potato tissue.

They prepared two identical large cubes of potato tissue, each with side lengths of 30 mm.
One cube was left whole (Sample X).
The other cube was cut into twenty-seven equal-sized smaller cubes, each with side lengths of 10 mm (Sample Y).
Both samples were placed into a highly concentrated sucrose solution of the same concentration.
They measured the total mass of each sample at the start and after 40 minutes.

Potato cubes diagram

The table below shows the results of this investigation:

Potato sample	Number of cubes	Side length of each cube ( $mm\text{mm}$ )	Total mass at 0 min ( $g\text{g}$ )	Total mass at 40 min ( $g\text{g}$ )
X (1 large cube)	1	30	45.0	41.4
Y (27 small cubes)	27	10	45.0	35.1

Surface area to volume ratio