Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;bruthajoe, post: 4979237, member: 108656&quot;]I don&#039;t know but... lots of support on this, like I said...</p><p>&nbsp; <i> Have you ever forgotten to water a plant for a few days, then come back to find your once-perky arugula a wilted mess? If so, you already know that water balance is very important for plants. When a plant wilts, it does so because water moves out of its cells, causing them to lose the internal pressure—called turgor pressure—that normally supports the plant.</i></p><p><i>Why does water leave the cells? The amount of water outside the cells drops as the plant loses water, but the same quantity of ions and other particles remains in the space outside the cells. This increase in <b>solute</b>, or dissolved particle, concentration pulls the water out of the cells and into the extracellular spaces in a process known as osmosis.</i></p><p><i>Formally, <b>osmosis</b> is the net movement of water across a semipermeable membrane from an area of lower solute concentration to an area of higher solute concentration. This may sound odd at first, since we usually talk about the diffusion of solutes that are dissolved in water, not about the movement of water itself. However, osmosis is important in many biological processes, and it often takes place at the same time that solutes diffuse or are transported. Here, we’ll look in more detail at how osmosis works, as well as the role it plays in the water balance of cells...</i></p><p><i><b>Note</b>: When we use these terms, we are considering only solutes that cannot cross the membrane.</i></p><p><i>&nbsp;</i></p><ul> <li><br /> <i><br /> <ul> <li>If the extracellular fluid has lower osmolarity than the fluid inside the cell, it’s said to be <b>hypotonic</b>—<i>hypo</i> means less than—to the cell, and the net flow of water will be into the cell.</li> </ul><ul> <li>In the reverse case, if the extracellular fluid has a higher osmolarity than the cell’s cytoplasm, it’s said to be <b>hypertonic</b>—<i>hyper</i> means greater than—to the cell, and water will move out of the cell to the region of higher solute concentration.</li> </ul><ul> <li>In an <b>isotonic</b> solution—<i>iso</i> means the same—the extracellular fluid has the same osmolarity as the cell, and there will be no net movement of water into or out of the cell.</li> </ul></i></li> </ul><p><i>Hypotonic, hypertonic, and isotonic are relative terms. That is, they describe how one solution compares to another in terms of osmolarity. For instance, if the fluid inside a cell has a higher osmolarity, concentration of solute, than the surrounding fluid, the cell interior is <i>hypertonic</i> to the surrounding fluid, and the surrounding fluid is <i>hypotonic</i> to the cell interior.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>S</i>o it seems to me hypotonic water is not good for you.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in