Svante Arrhenius Trivia Questions

The pH scale was invented by Søren Sørensen in 1909, not Arrhenius. Arrhenius focused on dissociation, not pH.

He introduced the concept of activation energy and the Arrhenius equation, linking reaction rates to temperature and energy barriers.

In his 1884 doctoral thesis, Arrhenius famously claimed the idea came to him in a flash while bathing, though it nearly failed his defense.

He spent most of his career at Stockholm University (then Stockholms Högskola) and the Nobel Institute, not Cambridge.

He won the 1903 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his electrolytic dissociation theory, not specifically for defining acids and bases.

In 1896, Arrhenius published a paper calculating that doubling CO2 could raise Earth’s temperature by 5–6°C, long before modern climate science.

Though he speculated about panspermia and life on other planets, he considered Venus too hot and dry to support life as we know it.

He was a strong proponent of panspermia, suggesting microscopic life could travel through space on comets or dust particles.