About Osmosis

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Hi everyone,

I will be taking the HESI exam real soon. I want to know does Osmosis occur from a low region to a high region or is it the opposite? I'm sorry for asking this question but I see the internet say a different answer from my book. One book I real say Osmosis go from a region from low to high, another book say Osmosis goes from a higher region to a lower. lol I'm really confuse. I don't want the HESI to ask me this question without me knowing. So what is the answer?

Thanks for the help!:D

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

low concentration to high concentration. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/osmosis

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Thank You!!!!

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Specializes in Urgent Care NP, Emergency Nursing, Camp Nursing.

Um, not quite....

Osmosis is the diffusion of water across a membrane, and like all instances of diffusion water will move from its highest concentration to its lowest concentration. Thing is, we don't measure the concentration of water directly, mostly because it's a pain in the ass. Instead, we measure the concentration of the solutes which are essentially diluting the water. The water moves to the higher concentration of solutes as measured by osmolarity/osmolality, as that represents the lower concentration of water.

That's what's actually going on. If reading this just confused you further, go with what Daytonite said. Hopefully it'll get you through your test.

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Just remember "more particles attracts more water."

In other words, water always moves towards the area of higher solute concentration.

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