Tonicity & Osmosis

Water moves across the membrane toward the side with more solute (lower water potential). Pick the surrounding solution and watch net water movement and the cell's volume change.

Dots = solute particles. Arrows = net water movement direction.

net water flownone
cell volumestable
animal-cell outcomenormal

Try: select Hypotonic and watch the cell swell toward bursting (lysis); then Hypertonic shrinks it (crenation). Only Isotonic holds steady — equal solute means equal water flow both ways.