Hypertonic Hypotonic

[hardworker]

Can anyone explain to me hypertonic and hypotonic in relation to Osmosis preferably with an example. My teacher gave us one relating  to a fish and the concentration of salt but i didn't get it. Thanks in advance.

[aishuwa1995]

a hypertonic solution is one with more solutes than solvent for example a highly concentrated salt solution (eg: 5.0M)..if you put red blood cells(say they're 1.0M concentration) into this solution water would move out of the cell because during osmosis water molecules move from high concentration to low concentration

a hypotonic solution is one with more solvent than solute for example just water (eg: 0.0M)..if you put red blood cells of the same concentration as above into water, water from the beaker would move into the red blood cells and cause it swell up/lyse.

[xlaiyn]

a hypertonic solution is one with more solutes than solvent for example a highly concentrated salt solution (eg: 5.0M)..if you put red blood cells(say they're 1.0M concentration) into this solution water would move out of the cell because during osmosis water molecules move from high concentration to low concentration

a hypotonic solution is one with more solvent than solute for example just water (eg: 0.0M)..if you put red blood cells of the same concentration as above into water, water from the beaker would move into the red blood cells and cause it swell up/lyse.

That's a pretty detailed summary.
As for examples, the way I think of it, is that if the solute is higher than the solvent, the cell in the hypertonic will shrivel up, like the way pickles do when they're in a jar. The hypotonic solution would make it swell, and thus it reminds me of a piece of sponge.

[Scooby]

a hypertonic solution is one with more solutes than solvent for example a highly concentrated salt solution (eg: 5.0M)..if you put red blood cells(say they're 1.0M concentration) into this solution water would move out of the cell because during osmosis water molecules move from high concentration to low concentration

a hypotonic solution is one with more solvent than solute for example just water (eg: 0.0M)..if you put red blood cells of the same concentration as above into water, water from the beaker would move into the red blood cells and cause it swell up/lyse.

Hmm... not really. A hypertonic solution has a higher concentration of solute than a solution to which it is compared. That doesn't necessarily mean the concentration of that solution is high; it's just higher than whatever we're comparing it to. It definitely doesn't mean that there is a greater amount of solute in the solution than solvent

A hypotonic solution has a lower concentration of solute than another solution to which it is compared. Again, that doesn't mean the concentration of the solution is low - it's just lower than whatever we're comparing it to 

[alondouek]

Hmm... not really. A hypertonic solution has a higher concentration of solute than a solution to which it is compared. That doesn't necessarily mean the concentration of that solution is high; it's just higher than whatever we're comparing it to. It definitely doesn't mean that there is a greater amount of solute in the solution than solvent

A hypotonic solution has a lower concentration of solute than another solution to which it is compared. Again, that doesn't mean the concentration of the solution is low - it's just lower than whatever we're comparing it to 

^This. For example, consider a cell in an aqueous environment (as it usually is, haha); there are two distinct regions of solute concentration, the intracellular environment and the extracellular environment, separated by a semi-permeable plasma membrane. We can only say that the cell is in a specific environment (hypertonic/isotonic/hypotonic) when we compare it to the state of concentration of the extracellular environment. It's all about comparison.

Also, never forget that hyper/iso/hypotonic refers only to solute concentration.

[hardworker]

Thanks everyone for answering the question