Question

Define water potential and solute potential.

Answer 1

Water potential is considered the potential energy of water. It is also taken as a measure of the difference between the potential energy in a given sample of the wafer and pure water.

If a solute is dissolved in pure water, the solution is considered to have less free water and hence the concentration of water decreases. Thus, all solutions have lower water potential than pure water. The magnitude of lowering in water potential due to the dissolution of solute is called solute potential.