A student is investigating the process of osmosis. She fills a medicine dropper with red blood cells. Next, she creates a saline solution that is isotonic to the red blood cells. What will most likely happen to the red blood cells after they are placed in the solution?
a
Water will enter the cells and cause them to grow in size.
b
Water will enter and exit the cells at a steady rate and their sizes will remain the same.
c
Water will neither enter or exit the cells and their sizes will remain the same.
d
Water will exit the cells and cause them to shrink in size.
b
b
Water will enter and exit the cells at a steady rate and their sizes will remain the same.
To answer this question, we need to understand the process of osmosis and how it affects red blood cells. Osmosis is the movement of water across a semipermeable membrane from an area of low solute concentration to an area of high solute concentration.
In this case, the student has created a saline solution that is isotonic to the red blood cells. An isotonic solution has the same concentration of solutes as the red blood cells. When a red blood cell is placed in an isotonic solution, there is no net movement of water because the concentration of solutes is equal on both sides of the cell membrane.
Therefore, based on our understanding of osmosis and isotonic solutions, the answer is option c: Water will neither enter nor exit the cells, and their sizes will remain the same.