We recently completed a lab in biology concerning diffusion. We placed half of a carrot in fresh water and half of a carrot in salt water. We observed that the carrot in the salt water lost mass, and the carrot in fresh water gained mass.

One of the discussion questions is would you get the same results with a potatoe? I am not sure about the answer. My thoughts are that you wouldn't b/c of the different skins. Please help me out!

It really depends. Potatoes are the roots of their plants however, so they should be absorbing things just as well as carrots.

you would think so, but potatoes conatian more starch so that may actually have an affect on the result. remember to take everything into mind. (the more detail, the better )

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/chem03/chem03010.htm

It really depends. Potatoes are the roots of their plants however, so they should be absorbing things just as well as carrots.

Potatoes are stem tubers actually....

 

I would think the result would be similar, but you are right, some potatoes have waxy skins, this may prevent osmosis taking place. You would definately get a similar result with a peeled potatoe, provided the salt concentration was greater than the osmolarity of the potato, as is the case with the carrot.