What is Osmosis and Diffusion?

Everything in nature wants to be in equilibrium (even, balanced), so diffusion is one process to get things into equilibrium. What makes diffusion occur is a difference in concentration. Think of a school dance. If you start with all the boys on one side (the left side) of the room and all the girls on the other side (right side) things are unbalanced. The left side has a really high concentration of boys and a low concentration of girls. The right side is opposite. But for people to have a good time and dance you need the boys and girls to mix. Now, one girl might start to make her way (or diffuse) over to the left side because she wants to dance with one of the boys. And maybe one or two boys will diffuse to the right side to dance with the girls. If this keeps happening you'll eventually have a mixture of boys and girls in the whole room. Osmosis is a specific type of diffusion where water particles diffuse through a "semi-permeable" membrane. Basically the water has to move because there is a high concentration of something on the other side, but it's too big to fit through the membrane. Going back to the gym.... lets say there is a big wall down the middle of the gym separating the girls and the boys. The wall has holes in it, but only the girls are small enough to fit through the holes. So the boys have to stay on their side of the gym. But, the girls still want to dance, so they have to climb through the holes to mix with the boys. Girls will keep doing this trying to get to dance with the boys. In this case, the girls are the "water" and the wall with the holes is the "semi-permeable membrane." Osmosis occurs in things like your cells.

diffusion - random movement of molecules(tiny chemical particles) from a region of high concentration(a bunch) to low concentration(a few). If someone is cooking food it the kitchen and you can smell it your bedroom - the particles that create the smell are diffusing through the air in the house. osmosis is the diffusion of water molecules through a membrane(like a cell membrane) Soak a dry bean in water - it swells and gets soft - water is moving into the bean - osmosis.

Diffusion is the concept that things will move from an are of high concentration of that thing to an area of low concentration. Osmosis is where water moves from and are of high water concentration to an are of low water concentration. For example, if you put a starfish (that live in a saltwater habitat) in freshwater, water will diffuse into the starfish because its body has a lower concentration than the surrounding water. Also, if you are ever in water for a very long time, you will notice that your hands get all prunny. that is because water diffuses out of your skin by osmosis because your body has a higher concentration of water than the surrounding water.

ok, here goes, Osmosis: the gradual (slow), often unknowing (unaware) absorption of knowledge or ideas, through continual exposure, rather than deliberate learning. (If you hear something over and over again it will stick in your head) example; He seemed to pick up a working knowledge of the French language through osmosis. Diffusion: to spread through, make something scatter or make something less intense. example; when you use a 'dimmer switch' on a light bulb, it diffuses the light, makes it less intense, less bright I hope this helps!