osmosis

• what is osmosis?

  the net movement of water particles across a partially permeable membrane from a region of higher water concentration to a region of lower concentration
• what is water concentration?

  the amount of water as compared to other molecules like sugars or salts that are dissolved in the water
• if a beaker had a higher concentration of solutes it would have more solute molecules. it would also have a lower concentration of water as it has less water molecules per molecules of solute
• higher concentration of solutes = lower concentration of water
• lower concentration of solutes = higher concentration of water
• the proportion of water : solutes determines the concentration
• osmosis is a passive process as it does not require any energy