Question

The outer shells of two eggs are removed. One of the eggs is placed in pure water and the other is placed in saturated solution of sodium chloride. What will be observed and why?

Outer hard shells of two eggs are removed. One of the eggs is placed in saturated solution of sodium chloride and the other egg is placed in pure water. What change will be observed and why?

Answer 1

1. When the outer shells of two eggs are removed, the egg placed in pure water will swell and the egg placed in saturated sodium chloride (NaCl) solution will shrink.
2. This happens due to osmosis. In pure water, water moves into the egg (which has a higher concentration of solutes) through the semi-permeable membrane, causing it to swell.
3. In saturated NaCl solution, water moves out of the egg (into the more concentrated salt solution), causing it to shrink.
4. This is a classic demonstration of water movement across a semi-permeable membrane in response to solute concentration differences.