Young Svante gave evidence of his intellectual brilliance at an early age. He taught himself to read by the age of three and learned to do arithmetic by watching his father keep books for the estate of which he was in charge. Arrhenius began school at the age of eight, when he entered the fifth-grade class at the Cathedral School in Uppsala. After graduating in 1876, Arrhenius enrolled at the University of Uppsala.

At Uppsala, Arrhenius concentrated on mathematics, chemistry, and physics and passed the candidate's examination for the bachelor's degree in 1878. He then began a graduate program in physics at Uppsala, but left after three years of study. He was said to be dissatisfied with his physics advisor, Tobias Thalén, and felt no more enthusiasm for the only advisor available in chemistry, Per...