Unit 4: Continuity and Change
Topic 4.6: Water Potential Questions
Practice 20 exam-style questions for IB Biology Topic 4.6. Review the question stems below, then unlock the full Question Bank to access markschemes, model answers, and AI grading.
1State1 mark
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State the term used to describe a solution that has a higher osmolarity than the cell it surrounds.
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How do dissolved solutes inside a plant cell affect its water potential?
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A solution has a higher osmolarity than the cell it surrounds.
What is this solution described as?
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A plant cell is placed in a solution that is more dilute than its cytoplasm (a hypotonic solution).
What happens to the cell?
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Which term describes a plant cell that has lost so much water that its cytoplasm and membrane have pulled away from the cell wall?
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Red blood cells placed in a solution are seen to shrink and develop a wrinkled, spiky surface.
What is this shrivelled appearance called?
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What does the osmolarity of a solution measure?
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State the term used for a plant cell that has taken in water and become firm, with its contents pressing hard against the cell wall.
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What effect does adding more solute to a solution have on its water potential?
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State the direction in which water moves by osmosis, in terms of water potential.
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Describe what happens to a cheek cell when it is placed in a concentrated (hypertonic) salt solution.
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State the relationship between the water potential, solute potential and pressure potential of a plant cell.
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A plant cell sits in a solution that is the same concentration as its cytoplasm (an isotonic solution).
What is its state?
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In a plant cell, the water potential (Ψ) is equal to which of the following?
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Why does the cell wall stop a plant cell bursting when it is placed in a very dilute solution?
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A student separates a sugar solution from pure water using a membrane in a glass tube and observes the water level rise on the sugar-solution side.
Outline the conditions required for osmosis to take place across the membrane.
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Two beakers of water are separated by a partially permeable membrane and start with equal solute concentrations (isotonic).
What is the net movement of water?
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In a fully plasmolysed plant cell, what fills the gap between the shrunken cell contents and the cell wall?
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