Understanding Your Results
The magic happens when water moves to balance concentrations on both sides of the potato cell membranes. In distilled water, your potato gained 16.2% mass because water rushed into the cells where sugar concentration was higher - this is called a hypotonic solution.
As sugar concentration increases outside the potato, less water moves in. Eventually, you'll hit a point where water actually leaves the potato cells. In the strongest solutions, the potato lost 9% of its mass because the outside solution was hypertonic - more concentrated than inside the cells.
The graph shows this perfectly - mass gain drops steadily until it crosses zero, then becomes mass loss. Where the line crosses zero tells you the concentration that matches inside the potato cells.
Exam Smart: Remember that water always moves towards higher solute concentration - if there's more sugar outside, water moves out of the potato!