Talk:Osmolarity
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[edit] Tonicity
Osmolarity and tonicity are not the same thing. Osmolarity pressure that solutes exert on either side of a membrane that allows only water to pass. In contrast, tonicity does not assume such a membrane. Thus, osmolarity is affected only by what solutes are put initially on both sides of the membrane, whereas tonicity is affected by both this and the possible flow of those solutes to the other side, which affects osmosis.
the articles should be linked, but merging them would be confusing.
- You are absolutely correct that osmolarity and tonicity are not the same thing. However, I believe you otherwise have your definitions for osmolarity and tonicity confused. Tonicity is in fact the phenomenon that refers to water movement exclusively, not osmolarity. Osmolarity takes into account the molecules that can't cross a membrane as well as those that can. I am not entirely sure though whether or not osmolarity absolutely demands the presence of a membrane. The majority of the definitions I've seen refer to the necessity that solutes exert oncotic pressure over a membrane. But it seems to me that simply having particles that would be oncotically active is enough to define a solution's osmolarity without the actual presence of a membrane. IE: A 1mM solution of sodium chloride represents a 2 mOsm/L solution, whether or not a membrane is present. I personally think an "Osmolarity vs. Tonicity" page should be created independent of "Osmolarity" and "Tonicity", to which both pages could link.
[edit] Requested move
I'm suggesting moving this page to Osmolarity instead of having that term redirect here. "Osmolarity" is the term/concept you find in the indices of biology textbooks and "osmole" is just the unit it is measured in. After the first sentence, the whole article talks about osmolarity and redirecting it to Osmole (unit) is a bit like redirecting light to Einstein (unit). - tameeria (talk) 15:22, 10 December 2007 (UTC)
Addendum: Alternatively, all these terms (osmolarity, osmolality, osmole) could be merged with/redirected to osmotic pressure. Maybe that would make even more sense than moving this page. - tameeria (talk) 16:56, 11 December 2007 (UTC)
- I'm not sure osmotic pressure is the best home for it since there is also osmotic potential. I do think that osmole is a little obscure and osmolarity would seem to be a better home. David D. (Talk) 05:06, 13 December 2007 (UTC)
- I support a move to Osmolarity per David D. --Lox (t,c) 12:11, 17 December 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Possible error
I believe this is an error, could somebody please correct....
"nju of the erythrocyte"
nju is possibly a typo? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.155.149.249 (talk) 12:15, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
