Q 01/05

The so-called chlorine smell at swimming pools actually comes from which compound, formed when chlorine meets sweat?

A) Chlorine dioxide

B) Chloramine

C) Sulfur dioxide

D) Hydrogen sulfide

Answer · why

B) Chloramine

Chloramine forms when free chlorine reacts with compounds in sweat and other body waste, so the famous pool smell is not the element itself.

Q 02/05

Soldiers gassed with chlorine in World War I said it smelled like pepper mixed with which tropical fruit?

A) Mango

B) Banana

C) Coconut

D) Pineapple

Answer · why

D) Pineapple

Pineapple and pepper was how survivors described the smell, and they also reported a metallic taste that stung the back of the throat.

Q 03/05

Before proper gas masks, World War I troops facing chlorine were told to breathe through cloths soaked in what?

A) Urine

B) Rum

C) Cold tea

D) Lamp oil

Answer · why

A) Urine

Urine was advised because its urea was thought to react with chlorine and blunt it, and the order went down the line within days of the first attack.

Q 04/05

Which Hungarian doctor slashed deaths in a Vienna maternity ward by making staff wash their hands in chlorine solution?

A) Joseph Lister

B) Louis Pasteur

C) Ignaz Semmelweis

D) Alexander Fleming

Answer · why

C) Ignaz Semmelweis

Ignaz Semmelweis chose chlorine because it removed the smell of the dissecting room from doctors' hands, which soap alone did not.

Q 05/05

Which artificial sweetener, sold under the Splenda brand, is table sugar with three chlorine atoms swapped in?

A) Aspartame

B) Sucralose

C) Saccharin

D) Stevia

Answer · why

B) Sucralose

Sucralose is about 600 times sweeter than sugar, and it was reportedly found when a researcher misheard an order to test a chlorinated compound as tas...