Year 10 Pre-Diploma Biology

SUGAR IN A SPORTS DRINK AN INVESTIGATION

This is really an investigation into OSMOSIS. We shall use osmosis to confirm (approximately!) the
concentration of sugar in sports drinks.
Osmosis is the diffusion of water through a partially permeable membrane (such as a cell
membrane). The water diffuses in order to balance concentrations on the two sides of the
membrane at a time when solutes which are dissolved in the water cannot cross the
membrane. For instance sugar molecules, when in solution in water, cannot pass across a
partially permeable membrane, but the water can.
Make a simple, labelled diagram in the space below, to illustrate the theory of osmosis.

The first step is to guesstimate how many spoonfuls of sugar are in 1 litre of a sports drink we are
testing PROfit. Look at the label on the bottle. This gives the amount of carbohydrate (that is the
sugar) in a 250 ml serving. You will also need to know how many grams of sugar are in 1 tablespoonful: my rough weighing came up with 20 gms for a loaded spoon. (You might like to click on
www.tomaprofit.com!)
Do some simple maths! In the space below, show your working out to arrive at a
guesstimate for the number of spoonfuls of sugar in 1 litre of PROfit.

Next you need to prepare three concentrations of sugar which are:

ABOVE your guesstimate for the concentration of sugar in PROfit
BELOW your guesstimate
SAME as your guesstimate
You will be given a saturated solution of sucrose. No more sucrose can be dissolved in it. To achieve
this concentration 50 table-spoonfuls of sugar were added to 1 litre of water.
You can dilute this sucrose solution by 50% by adding exactly the same volume again of water. That
would equate to 25 table-spoonfuls of sugar in 1 litre. Dilute it as far as you need to arrive at the three
concentrations you require. (This is called a serial dilution.)

So far, so good! Now the manipulative part - difficult! You will be given three pieces of dialysis tubing.
Dialysis tubing is used in the kidney machines to which are hooked up patients whose kidneys are
failing. The tubing does the work of the kidneys, producing urine. Dialysis tubing is a semipermeable membrane.
You need to:
open the pieces of dialysis tubing (underwater is best)
tie a leak-proof knot in the bottom of each piece of dialysis tubing
completely fill each of the little bags you now have with PROfit
insert a capillary or plastic tube into the top of each bag and tie the bag very securely around
the capillary tube
This is the hard part the bag must be full no air spaces; must not have leaks; and the knot
and the tie must be completely leak-proof.
Suspend each of the three little bags with its capillary tubing in one of the three different
solutions of sugar you have prepared. You can use tall beakers or graduated, measuring flasks.
The bags should not rest on the bottom of the beakers or flasks and would be best held up by a
clamp and stand.
Now is the time for predicting results. Assuming that the sugar from the PROfit cannot leave its little
bag, and neither can the sugar from outside get into the little bag, the only thing that can move is the
water of the solutions. The water will either travel in or out in order to try to achieve equilibrium. If
water enters the little bag from the beaker, the level of the solution should rise up in the capillary tube;
if water leaves the little bag and goes into the surrounding solution, the level in the capillary tube
should drop. If we have the same concentration inside and outside the bag, there should be no
movement. Bingo! That is the result we want!
Anyway, make a prediction in the space below for what you think will happen in each of
the three investigations which you have set up.
1.

2.

3.

Leave the investigations until you have some measureable results. From these results are you able to
confirm how many spoonfuls of sugar go into one 500 ml bottle of PROfit?
John Osborne
May 2015

Materials and equipment

3 x clamps and a stand

3 x beakers or graduated flasks of height about 20 cm
3 x capillary or plastic tubing of diameter approx. 1 2 mm
Plastic pipette
3 x 15 cm lengths of dialysis tubing
Thread and scissors
1 litre of concentrated sucrose solution (50 spoonfuls sucrose in 1 litre water)