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Table of Contents
Svante Arrhenius was a Swedish scientist who was one of the forefathers of physical chemistry. He was also the first Swede to be given the Nobel prize.
See the fact file below for more information on the Svante Arrhenius or alternatively, you can download our 23-page Svante Arrhenius worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.
Key Facts & Information
EARLY LIFE
- On February 19, 1859, Svante August Arrhenius was born in Vik, Sweden.
- At a young age, he learned how to read by himself. He also became a prodigy in arithmetics just by watching his father add numbers in his account books.
- When he was eight, he entered the local cathedral school as a fifth grader. He was very skilled in mathematics and physics. He was the youngest of the graduates of 1876.
- In the same year, he enrolled in the University of Uppsala and took courses in physics, chemistry, and mathematics.
- In 1878, he received his bachelor’s degree.
- He conducted research works under the supervision of Per Teodor Cleve. However, in 1881, he left the university due to dissatisfaction and went to study at the Physical Institute of the Swedish Academy of Sciences.
CAREER AND CONTRIBUTIONS
- He assisted Erik Edlund in his work on measuring electromotive force of spark discharges.
- Arrhenius later conducted his own studies and focused on electrolyte conductivities.
- In 1884, for his doctorate, he submitted to Uppsala a,n 150-page dissertation discussing electrolytic conductivity.
- However, his dissertation did not impress his professors, and he was awarded a fourth-class degree. This was reclassified as third-class upon his defense of his dissertation.
- In this study, he concluded that electrolytes dissolved in water separate into positive and negative electrical charges.
- He also proposed that chemical reactions take place between oppositely charged ions.
- Most of the 56 theses in his dissertation are still accepted to this day.
- In 1886, the Academy gave him a grant that enabled him to travel and meet leading scientists and conduct research with them.
- Arrhenius conducted studies about cosmic physics between 1885 and 1890 while continuing to make remarkable findings in relation to the theory of electrolytic dissociation.
- He also proposed the concept of activation energy, an energy barrier that must be overcome for chemical reactions to occur.
- The relationship between the rate at which a reaction proceeds and the activation energy can be calculated using the Arrhenius equation.
- He was appointed as a physics lecturer at the Stockholms Högskola.
- Four years later, in 1895, he was made a professor. The following year, he became a rector.
- In 1896, he began working to prove how fluctuations in CO2 levels can affect the temperature and climate of a place. Arrhenius called this the “greenhouse effect”. Today, this is held as one of the pioneering studies on climate change. A derived form of his formula to calculate temperature change is still used in climate study.
- Arrhenius was also involved in setting up the Nobel Prizes and Nobel Institutes. He was a member of the Nobel Committee on Physics until his death.
- In 1901, he was elected as a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
- In 1902, he started investigating physiological problems using chemical theories. This led him to determine that reactions in test tubes and in living organisms followed the same laws.
- In 1904, he provided lectures illustrating the application of physical chemistry methods in studying the theory of toxins and antitoxins.
- This series of lectures was published under the title of Immunochemistry.
- He also studied astronomy, astrophysics, physical cosmology, and geology.
- He thought that radiation pressure accounted for comets, the aurora borealis, solar corona, and zodiacal light.
- He also gave a detailed scientific hypothesis about panspermia. He supposed that the transport of spores might have carried life from planet to planet.
- He also proposed a modification to the English language, giving the idea of a universal language.
- Arrhenius was also a board member of the Swedish Society for Racial Hygiene.
LATER LIFE
- His skills and interest in writing for the general public were seen in many lectures and short publications.
- Arrhenius published a handful of popular books during the last decades of his life, many of which appeared in several editions and languages.
- In 1903, he became the first Swede to be given the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on electrolytic dissociation.
- In 1905, the Nobel Institute for Physical Research was founded in Stockholm. He was appointed as the institute’s rector in the same year and remained in that position until he retired in 1927.
- In 1909, the Netherlands Chemical Society elected him an Honorary Member.
- In 1910, he became a foreign member of the Royal Society and was later given the Davy medal and the Faraday Medal of the Chemical Society in 1914.
- In 1911, he became the first person to win the Willard Gibbs Award.
- In 1912, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences elected him as a Foreign Honorary Member. He also became a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1919.
- Arrhenius also received honorary degrees from the Universities of Cambridge, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Groningen, Greifswald, Leipzig, Oxford, and Heidelberg.
- Arrhenius was happy and contented in his work and family life. He married Sofia Rudbeck, a former student. They had one child, Olof Vilhelm Arrhenius, who also became a chemist. They later separated, and in 1905, he married Maria Johansson. They had two daughters and a son, but the marriage only lasted until 1927.
- In September 1927, he suffered from an attack of severe intestinal catarrh. He died on October 2 of the same year and was buried in Uppsala.
- His contributions to science are honored by Arrhenius acid, the Arrhenius equation, the craters on the moon and Mars that are named after him, the Arrheniusfjellet, and the Stockholm University’s Arrhenius Labs.
Svante Arrhenius Worksheets
This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the Svante Arrhenius across 23 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Svante Arrhenius worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Svante Arrhenius who was a Swedish scientist who was one of the forefathers of physical chemistry. He was also the first Swede to be given the Nobel prize.
Complete List Of Included Worksheets
- Arrhenius’ Part
- In Svante’s Time
- Terms on Facts
- Lines on the Books
- Svante’s Nobel
- Energy Activation
- What I’ll Be Leaving
- Globally Warm
- Prodigy of My Own
- Catarrhcteristic
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