Carrot Science

Art by Gary Martin
Art by Gary Martin

By Harriet Vender

Take a raw baby carrot and tie a string around it tightly (add a knot so it won’t come off). Put it in a container of salt water and let it sit overnight.

Check the carrot the next day and you will find that the string isn’t tight anymore — it will probably be so loose that the string falls right off. This is due to OSMOSIS.

Osmosis is the movement of a fluid across a membrane. If it can, water moves to a place where there is a lower concentration of water. The water from the carrot moves into the salty water and therefore the carrot shrinks.

-Harriet Vender is a 7th- and 8th-grade science teacher

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