ee-energy, or a free-energy gradient (Vodopich & Moore 2002). The free-energy gradient, and thus the rate of osmosis, is dictated by the concentrations of the involved solutions. The more hypertonic the cell is to its environment, or vice-versa, the steeper the free-energy gradient. Think of it like a ball rolling down a hill: the steeper the incline, the faster the ball rolls down the hill.
             The intent of this study was to determine the flow of osmosis across a semi-permeable membrane such as the plasma membrane of cells. It was hypothesized that the dialysis bags with higher (called hypertonic) concentrations of the solute, sucrose, would experience an increase in weight- a condition called lysed, while the bag or bags with the lower (called hypotonic) concentrations of sucrose would experience a decrease in weight- which is known as crenate. Any bags with a solute concentration approximately equal (called isotonic) to the solute concentration of the environment would experience no change in weight.
             The dialysis tubing provided a good simulation of osmosis across a plasma membrane, because the dialysis bags possessed pores that were small enough for water but not large enough for larger macromolecules (such as the solute, sucrose) to pass through. Thus, they were a very good example of a differentially permeable membrane.
             It is important to understand osmosis because osmosis & other types of passive transport are an integral part of a cell's functioning. Without the passage of solutes into and out of the cell, proteins synthesized by the cell's ribosome
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