NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE: LIFE SCIENCES: PAPER III Page 2 of 6
Perfect French Fries in Restaurants
Busy restaurants need to prepare everything that they need before the customers arrive so that the food does not take too long to prepare once the customer has ordered. French Fries (hot chips) are a problem because the potato chips often go soft and limp after the potatoes have been washed, cleaned and cut. Restaurant owners have found that keeping the potato chips in slightly salty water helps to keep them crisp and firm. But, if the water is too salty, the chips will go soft too quickly. If the water is not salty enough, the chips become watery.
The perfect saltiness needed to keep chips crisp is very important for owners of restaurants. The perfect chip is when the concentration of solutes in the water matches the solute concentration of the cell sap inside the potato cells. We call this the isotonic point (see Information Sheet).
Before you begin your investigation, make sure that you have all of the following items at your workstation:
• salt • 5 ml spoon • 3 identical containers • stirring rod • potato • sharp knife • cutting tile/surface • marking pen • piece of paper towel • ruler • 20 ml syringe • tap water • timing device
TASKS
1. Use your knife and cutting tile/surface to carefully cut your potato in half. Now, using your ruler to measure, cut a slice 0,5 cm thick from one half of your potato. From this slice cut three rectangular chips making sure that each one is approximately 0,5 cm × 0,5 cm × 4 cm as shown in the diagram below. Try to get the three chips as similar to one another as you can. Put your three chips to one side until you need them.
NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE: LIFE SCIENCES: PAPER III Page 3 of 6
2. Label your three empty containers A, B and C. Using your syringe, measure out 100 ml of tap water into container A, and 50 ml of water into containers B and C. Accurately measure 5 ml of salt using the spoon provided. Place the spoon with the salt on the table next to container A.
NOW CALL YOUR TEACHER BEFORE YOU PROCEED ANY FURTHER
3. Once your teacher has checked your work, place the salt that you have measured out into container A and measure the exact same quantity (5 ml) into container B. Stir the water in both containers well. Place one potato chip into each of the 3 containers and leave for at least 25 minutes.
COMPLETE TASK 4 WHILE YOU ARE WAITING FOR YOUR CHIPS
4. Design an experiment in which you would determine the isotonic point for potato cells. You may use equipment that you would find in your school laboratory.
MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE READ THE INFORMATION SHEET
5. Remove your three chips carefully and dry gently with a paper towel. Describe the appearance of each chip (A, B and C) as accurately as possible, noting any colour change and changes in feel, texture and flexibility.
Below this, note the length of each chip (in mm) bearing in mind that they all started out 40 mm long.
Chip A Chip B Chip C
5.1 COLOUR CHANGE, TEXTURE, FEEL AND FLEXIBILITY (include at least two of these)
5.2 LENGTH (mm) (6)
6. When performing this procedure, how did you work carefully to get results that are as accurate as possible? Give two examples.
NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE: LIFE SCIENCES: PAPER III Page 6 of 6
8. Carefully examine chip B again.
8.1 What do you think caused it to look like this after being covered in salty water for 25 minutes?
(2)
8.2 Using your rules for Biological Drawing, make a diagram in the space below to represent one cell taken from the potato chip which was soaking in container B. Make sure that your drawing is large enough so that all parts are clearly visible. Label only the cell wall, cell membrane and vacuole.
