Root Hair Water Uptake Science Project Idea

How Root Hairs Take In Water

The way in which root hairs take in water is illustrated by the following experiment.

Uptake of Water from Roots Science Project Experiment

Carefully chip off about one half of a square inch of the shell from the blunt end of a fresh egg, taking care not to injure the membrane lying under the shell. Support the egg at the top of a glass containing water so that the exposed membrane is immersed in the water. Puncture the shell and membrane at the other end of the egg and by means of a needle mix the white and yolk of the egg. Into this end of the egg fasten a glass tube with sealing wax, clamp the tube to an iron support and set aside for a few hours. What has happened? Explain how this illustrates the work of the root hair.

Epidermal liquids separated by a plant or an animal membrane tend to mix with each other, but in this case the contents of the egg, like those of the root hair, are unable to pass through a membrane, so the flow of liquid is all in one direction. At the same time that water passes into the root hair, raw food material needed by the plant also passes in. The part of the stem through which the liquids pass upward may be seen by cutting across a living twig, the base of which has been kept in red ink for several days.