Recall what you know about hypertonic, hypotonic, and isotonic solutions. When an environment is hypotonic, what happens to the cell?
When an environment is hypotonic, the cell will take in water and swell due to the lower concentration of solutes outside the cell compared to inside the cell. This can cause the cell to burst if the cell membrane is not strong enough.
Recall what you know about hypertonic, hypotonic, and isotonic solutions. When an environment is hypotonic, what happens to the cell?
Hypotonic, hypertonic, and isotonic solutions refer to the concentration of solutes in comparison to the concentration inside the cell.
In a hypotonic solution, the concentration of solutes outside the cell is lower than inside the cell. When a cell is placed in a hypotonic environment, water tends to move into the cell through osmosis. As a result, the cell swells and may even burst due to excess intake of water. This process is known as cytolysis.
In summary, when a cell is exposed to a hypotonic environment, water moves into the cell, causing it to swell and potentially burst.
Hypertonic, hypotonic, and isotonic are terms used to describe the concentration of solutes in a solution compared to the concentration of solutes inside a cell.
In a hypotonic solution, the concentration of solutes is lower outside the cell than inside the cell. Consequently, water molecules tend to move from an area of lower solute concentration (the surrounding solution) to an area of higher solute concentration (inside the cell) in an effort to equalize the concentration on both sides of the cell membrane. This movement of water into the cell causes the cell to swell or expand. If this continues, the cell may eventually burst or undergo lysis.
To understand why this happens, we can look at the concept of osmosis. Osmosis is the movement of water across a semipermeable membrane from an area of higher water concentration (lower solute concentration) to an area of lower water concentration (higher solute concentration).
In a hypotonic environment, water diffuses into the cell due to the difference in solute concentrations. This influx of water can cause the cell to gain volume and increase in size, potentially leading to bursting.
In summary, when a cell is placed in a hypotonic environment, water moves inside the cell, causing it to swell or expand.