Which way is water moving when a cell is placed in a hypertonic solution?

Answer 1

Water will move into the stronger solution (the one with the higher concentration of solute or solutes). For osmosisto occur, there must be a semi-permeable membrane (also called a selectively permeable or differentially permeable membrane). In all cells the plasma membrane is just such a membrane, and in mature plant cells there is another such membrane, the vacuolar membrane or tonoplast, surrounding the central vacuole.

You can think of all solutes as attracting water. In a liquid containing one or more solutes, the total force attracting water is the osmotic pressure. When a semi-permeable membrane separates two solutions of differing osmotic pressures, there will be a net flow of water into the hypertonic (stronger) solution, in other words, the one with the higher osmotic pressure.

Osmosis is passive, and involves a net flow because some water molecules move one way across the membrane, some the other.

If the fluid surrounding a cell is hypotonic to the cytosol, that is another way of saying that the cytosol is hypertonic to the surrounding fluid. Either way, water will move into the cell.

Answer 2

If the cell is in a hypertonic solution, that means it is more concentrated outside of the cell than inside of the cell, so to equalize the concentrations water will flow out of the cell (the inside gets more concentrated while the outside gets more dilute).

Answer 3

The water will move in both directions, due to random Brownian motion.

However, as the hypertonic solution has a higher solute potential (greater concentration of solutes) than the interior of the animal cell, the rate of water diffusion out of the cell will be faster than the rate of water diffusion into the cell, until the solute/water potential equilibrates, at which point the rate in each direction will be equal (at this point, the solution will have become isotonic relative to the cell).

Therefore, the net diffusion of water takes place from the cell into the solution.

Answer 4

In a hypertonic solution, the concentration of salts outside of the cell is greater than on the inside.

Water will flow out of the cell in an attempt to reach equilibrium.

Answer 5

water will move from surrouding area to inside the cell.

Answer 6

Water molecules will move into the cell, because the inside of the cell is therefore hypotonic. This causes the cell to swell.