Is osmosis through a semi-permeable membrane or selectively permeable?
osmosis occurs through a semi-permeable membrane simply because water (as do many other biochemicals) moves from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration naturally,in order to maintain a balance between inside and outside the cell. in other words if a cell needs water,and the water is available outside of the cell, it will move from out to in. re: a potato cell, if the cell did not have enough water to sustain itself, water from the outside would move into the potato cell until the cell had enough water to carryout its functions, water is a universal solvent and needed in, and for all cells to carryout metabolic functions…a selectively permeable membrane allows only certain molecules inside the cell, it puts up “blocks” against “bad” molecules that it will not allow to enter…
