Take a fresh grape fruit and keep it in distilled water for
an hour. it is stouter than before. Another fresh grape fruit kept in salty
water for an hour will appear slim and wrinkled. The grape has dissolved
minerals,sugars and other ingredients in its juice. The skin of the grape is a
semi permeable membrane across which water can diffuse from one side to the
other through osmosis. When the grape is kept inside distilled water, the
concentration(salinity) of juice in the grape is higher than that of water and
water moves osmotically from outside the grape to inside. Hence the grape
appeared stouter. The reverse happened in the case of salty water.
The skin of the fish is like the skin of the grape fruit. If
the fish is in distilled water, there is an osmotic flow of water from outside
the fish to the inside because the salinity of the fish body is higher than
that of water. Thus there is danger of dilution of the body fluids of the fish
or at worst that of being blown out if the fish is to be in distilled water for
a very long period of time. Courtesy : The Hindu
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