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Introduction: solute, solvent and solution:

Osmosis is the selective movement of solvent from one solution into another. Understanding osmosis requires an examination of both solvent and solute behavior and, especially, the effect of solute on solvent behavior. In other words, understanding a solution!

The beginning of any solution is the molecules of solvent that constitute its bulk. In this lab book the solvent is H2O, water. Its molecules loosely associate with one another, with (yellow) hydrogen atoms usually attracted to neighboring (red) oxygens. The idealized appearance of a very small section of solvent might be something like this:

Molecules of Water