Using your knowledge of osmosis, describe what happens to a red blood cell when they are placed in a beaker of distilled water.

The distilled water is a hypotonic solution and so has a higher water potential than that of the red blood cell. Due to the difference in water potentials, water will move from the beaker into the red blood cell. This will cause the red blood cell to swell and eventually burst, due to the absence of a cell wall.