Tonicity Explanation

[UnSHaVeNReaPeR]

Can someone explain tonicity for me?

I am kinda confuse. It seems to be so complicated.

[jonmoulton]

Water diffuses from where it is in higher concentration to where it is in lower concentration. If something else is present in aqueous solution, that something displaces water so the water there is in lower concentration. This makes water diffuse into areas with more solute (higher tonicity). That's the process behind osmosis.

[UnSHaVeNReaPeR]

Then what is meant by hypotonic and hypertonic environment?

[MrMistery]

http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHM ... +hypotonic

[UnSHaVeNReaPeR]

When a red blood cell is placed in distilled water, the cell is hypertonic to the water. The water is hypotonic to the cell.

What is the hypertonic and hypotonic meaning in this sentence?

[MrMistery]

there's more stuff inside the cell than outside it

[bryanwilliamz]

Tonicity is the concentration of only the solutes that cannot cross the membrane, as only these solutes exert an osmotic pressure upon that membrane. Permeant solutes do not affect tonicity; impermeant solutes do affect it.

[UnSHaVeNReaPeR]

Oh I see. Thanks!

[mlvkanth]

A sum of ion of a solution is called the tonicity of a solution

[bellyjelly]

A state of normal firmness or functional readiness of body tissues or organs; a condition of sustained partial contraction of resting or relaxed muscles.

Tthe osmotic pressure or tension of a solution, as in the cells would swell or shrink depending on the tonicity of the environment.

A property of a solution that depends on the osmotic force exerted across the membrane as influenced by the differing concentrations of solutes in and out of the cell.

[Jastina13]

"The elastic tension of living muscles, arteries, etc. that facilitate response to stimuli" is a definition of "tonicity".

[einfopedia]

Tonicity is a measure of the osmotic pressure (as defined by the water potential of the two solutions) of two solutions separated by a semipermeable membrane. It is commonly used when describing the response of cells immersed in an external solution. Like osmotic pressure, tonicity is influenced only by solutes that cannot cross the membrane, as only these exert an osmotic pressure. Solutes able to freely cross the membrane do not affect tonicity because they will always be in equal concentrations on both sides of the membrane.

Osmotic pressure is the pressure that must be applied to a solution to prevent the inward flow of water across a semipermeable membrane.

There are three classifications of tonicness that one solution can have relative to another. The three are hypertonic, hypotonic, and isotonic.