Lesson 2: Osmosis

Excellent article on how osmosis really works, here:

http://www.alienryderflex.com/osmosis/

Poor explanations of osmosis have bothered me since high school (a strange thing to be upset about, I know). Typical arguments run along the lines of water "wanting" to swell up a cell because it "knows" the concentration is too salty or sugary and it needs to balance out.

I'm all for anthropomorphis, but seriously... I've yet to hear an adequate physical derivation that did not include water's subconsious wants, needs and desires. But this article has it.

So, in the end, it isn't the water that moves, but the mebrane. In fact, the water doesn't care about the sugar or salt, and will bounce around the same regardless.

Now there's one less monkey on my back; it really bugs me when there are gaping holes in explanations that go ignored. I have similar feelings regarding proofs of why calculus works, which I'll leave for another day.