Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Im just starting my project and I cant find any research on my topic. Any help ?

You'll need to give us a bit more information before we can help.

Do you want to learn how to dehydrate a potatoe? Do you want to do something with a dehydrated potatoe? Do you want to study some particular characteristics of dehydrated potatoes, like their nutritional value?

If you give us a better idea what you are trying to do, we'll do our best to help.

I need to cut one potatoe in half and put one part of the potatoe in salted water and the other half in plain water and see which one dehydrated the potatoe half

Hi Lashay90,

From what I understand, you're looking for research that shows that saltwater, or rather salt itself, causes dehydration. You could easily Google "saltwater dehydration" and explore your options. A couple of links come up, like this and that. You are by no means limited to these sites, nor do you have to use them, but they can serve as sources of concepts that you might be looking for. If your future web searches still don't have what you need, try the library! Good luck!

This is what I found about saltwater dehydration :

Salt water causes Dehydration because of the high level of salt.

Saline solution has a much lower level of salt. Here are some more specific facts about Saline:
Normal saline (NS) is the commonly-used term for a solution of 0.91% w/v of NaCl, about 300 mOsm/L.[1] Less commonly, this solution is referred to as physiological saline or isotonic saline, neither of which is technically accurate. NS is used frequently in intravenous drips (IVs) for patients who cannot take fluids orally and have developed or are in danger of developing dehydration or hypovolemia. NS is typically the first fluid used when hypovolemia is severe enough to threaten the adequacy of blood circulation, and has long been believed to be the safest fluid to give quickly in large volumes. However, it is now known that rapid infusion of NS can cause metabolic acidosis.

The solution is 9 grams of sodium chloride (NaCl) dissolved in 1 liter of water. The mass of 1 milliliter of normal saline is 1.0046 grams at 22°C [3][4]. The molecular weight of sodium chloride is approximately 58 grams per mole, so 58 grams of sodium chloride equals 1 mole. Since normal saline contains 9 grams of NaCl, the concentration is 9 grams per liter divided by 58 grams per mole, or 0.154 moles per liter. Since NaCl dissociates into two ions – sodium and chloride – 1 molar NaCl is 2 osmolar. Thus, NS contains 154 mEq/L of Na+ and Cl−. It has a slightly higher degree of osmolarity (i.e. more solute per litre) than blood (hence, though it is said to be isotonic with blood in clinical contexts, this is technically inaccurate). Nonetheless, the osmolarity of normal saline is a close approximation to the osmolarity of NaCl in blood.