PURIFYING YOUR WATER
When thinking of osmosis, reverse or otherwise, one might
be reminded of a bit of circular reasoning seen on a geeky
T-Shirt: “In order to understand recursion, one must first
understand recursion.” It’s a math joke. Osmosis is kind of
like that because in order to understand reverse osmosis,
one must first understand osmosis. Please review the definitions in the terminology sidebar found on page 80 before
proceeding with this article.
Osmosis Basics
Osmosis is a fundamental chemical and biological concept
taught in both middle and high school, but some people
find the concept hard to grasp. Osmosis is a kind of diffusion. When we think of things diffusing, we don’t have
much trouble with the notion that, if given the chance, the
atoms or molecules of gases and solutes in a liquid solvent
or in the air tend to naturally spread out and randomize
rather than come together.
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Maximum Yield USA | June 2016
For osmosis to occur, a barrier
must exist between two
solutions that have different
solute concentrations.