AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Water moves by osmosis, which is a type of diffusion, into and out of the cell. Through the cell membrane, water molecules flow through osmosis from a lower solute concentration to a higher solute concentration. Water can therefore travel because of a concentration gradient without using any energy.

Detailed explanation-2: -For example, a solution containing 10% salt is hypertonic. When a cell is placed in a hypertonic environment, there is a net movement of water to the outside of the cell (from the higher water environment inside the cell). The cell shrinks in response.

Detailed explanation-3: -Water (solvent) always moves from a higher solvent concentrated region to a lower solvent concentrated region, i.e., the water moves from inside the cell to outside of the cell by osmosis, where solute concentration is more. Water moves outside of the cell until it reaches equilibrium.

Detailed explanation-4: -Hence, the salt solution acts as a hypertonic solution when compared to the RBC. Therefore, water will move out of the RBC by osmosis and will result in the shrinking of the RBC (water moves from a hypotonic solution to a hypertonic solution).