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Osmosis / Reverse Osmosis
This exhibit shows how, when the pressure is higher
on one side of a membrane, larger molecules can be
filtered out from smaller ones and a higher concentration
of smaller molecules will exist on the side of lower
pressure. The visitor is prompted to press the high
buttons that control rotor speed for both sides. This
represents an equal pressure state and they notice
that the blue balls are evenly distributed to both
sides even though there is some movement across the
membrane in both directions. They also notice that
the larger red ball, representing the impurity, always
stays on the right side, because it cant fit
through the membrane. Then the visitor is prompted
to press the low button on the left and
high on the right. The visitor notices
after several seconds how most of the blue balls are
on the left now. There is still movement across the
membrane but always a higher concentration to the
left. The red ball still remains on the right side.
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