Fluid Pressure
The term fluid pressure is coined as, the measurement of the force per unit area of a given surface of a closed container. It is a branch of physics that helps to study the properties of fluid under various conditions of force.
Gauge Pressure
Pressure is the physical force acting per unit area on a body; the applied force is perpendicular to the surface of the object per unit area. The air around us at sea level exerts a pressure (atmospheric pressure) of about 14.7 psi but this doesn’t seem to bother anyone as the bodily fluids are constantly pushing outwards with the same force but if one swims down into the ocean a few feet below the surface one can notice the difference, there is increased pressure on the eardrum, this is due to an increase in hydrostatic pressure.
It depends on the temperature. The permeability of the membrane generally decreases because the molecules in the membrane have lover energy and their movement decreases. They pack closer together and the membrane fluidity is decreased. However the cholesterol in the membrane increases the range of temperature at which the membrane maintains its fluidity. It increases the fluidity at low temperatures and decreases it at high temperatures.
How does alcohol affect the permeability of the cell membrane?
The presence of alcohol (the black blob) shifts the lipid molecules out of place and breaks up their orderly arrangement. This makes the membrane more liquid like. (Like changing cold butter to a more liquid form like warm margarine.).
Overall, as ethanol increases in concentration it does increase the permeability of the cell membrane, through denaturing, dissolving and bonding with the individual molecules forming the layers, thus causing large either momentary or permanent gaps, large enough to allow betalain to diffuse out. ...read more.
What affects the permeability of a cell membrane?
Temperature and pH affects the permeability. Because as we know, the cell membrane is composed of phospholipids, proteins, carbohydrates, cholesterol. The proteins in the membrane act as transporters, cell markers and etc.. since there are proteins in the membrane in the fluid mosaic model, we know that when the temperature is increased the proteins start to change their shape and their effectiveness reduces and gradually as the temperature is increased more and more the protein denatures. When the proteins are denatured, it creates large holes/gaps in the cell membrane that causes the contents in the cell to flow out. For example,when you place a beetroot cube in a beaker and slowly increase the temperature by placing it in a water bath( u place it in a water breath for safety reasons) you can see that the pigment leaks out of the cells as the temperature is increased significantly. Therefore temperature affects the membrane permeability. Increased temperature causes increased permeability. pH affects the permeability by again denaturing the proteins and so on… if the pH is only changed a little, for instance if the optimum pH is 7 and the pH goes down by 1 and makes it to 6 it makes it slightly acidic and causes the bonds in the proteins to change. And thus affecting the effectiveness. But as the pH is increased again 7, the bonds take the original shape again.
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