24/09/2001
Hypertonic: hyper means over, above and high; hypertonic solution means the concentration of the solution is higher that the adjacent one, i.e. the water potential is the lower one.
Hypotonic: hypo means lower, not enough;
Isotonic: refer to solution with same water potential;
Flaccid: soft because of losing water;
Turgid: the opposite of flaccid;
Plasmolysis: exclusively used for plant, the loss of water from a plant cell to the extent that the protoplasm shrinks away from the cell wall;
Red blood cells (RBC) in hypotonic, hypotonic and isotonic solution
Add a small drop of blood into hypertonic solution, hypotonic solution, and isotonic solution
RBC burst in hypotonic solution, shrink in hypertonic solution, and no change in isotonic solution.
If a series of solution with gradual change of concentration is prepared, and drop of RBC is added into the solutions. The water potential of rbc is equal to that of the solution just with no bursting of rbc.