Question

how facilitated diffusion differs from simple diffusion ?

Answer 1

In simple diffusion, imagine a scent wafting through a room. Like a person comes in wearing perfume - that is, surrounded by a high concentration of perfume molecules floating in the air. As they spend time in the room, those molecules slowly spread out until everyone in the room can smell the perfume.


In facilitated diffusion, some mechanism speeds up the process. Like if the person came in with the perfume bottle and started spraying perfume around the room - i.e., using air pressure in the bottle to speed up the rate at which everyone in the room could smell the perfume.

Answer 2

Simple diffusion is when small particles move from high concentration to low concentration with ease through the double layer membrane. They do not require the use of ATP because they can easily flow in. Particles like uncharged molecules use this method to get in and out of the cell.

Facilitated diffusion is a bit different from simple diffusion. It requires the use of integral proteins. It's for bigger molecules. When the particles want to get in, integral proteins open up to let it through, which requires ATP. Things such as small polar particles use this method.