INDIAN SCIENTISTS - You Ought To Know

INDIAN SCIENTISTS - You Ought To Know

Some acknowledged some unknown to the world, these Indian scientists from years of lore have created and strengthened the fundamentals of modern science.

• ARYABHATTA 1 ( EARTH'S ROTATIONAL TIME )                                                    At the age of 23, Aryabhatta 1 judiciously noted down his observations and calculations for a mathematical system to figure out the workings of the universe for his now famous work Aryabhatiyam. The book, his only surviving treatise on mathematical astronomy, states that the earth was spherical in shape, rotates on its axis and like the remaining planets, revolves around the sun in an elliptical orbit. All this, 1500 years and o 1000 years before Copernicus and Galileo! He also calculated that the Earth takes 23 hours 56 minutes and 0.41 seconds to complete one rotation, which coincides with the modern value of 23:56:4.091. ( Source - BBC knowledge magazine India, Dec. issue ) 

• BRAHMAGUPTA (RULES FOR ZERO)

  While Bhaskara 1 maybe credited with giving zero the symbol it has today and Aryabhatta for introducing zero to the world, it was in fact Brahmagupta who gave zero it exalted status as a number in mathematics. He was the first mathematician to frame the rules of operations. He concluded rather successfully in his book,Brahmasphuta Siddhanta that the addition or subtraction of zero to or from any quantity, negative or positive is always zero, the product of any quantity with zero is zero and that the division of any quantity by zero is  infinity  

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• BHASKARA 1 (FORMULATED UNITS, TENS, HUNDREDS...)

  He did give the numeral zero its symbol, but Bhaskara 1's probably most important mathematical contribution concerns the representation of numbers in the positional system. Numbers are arranged in columns and have  to be read from right to left as units,tens,hundreds,thousands and so on.he has given us an extremely succinct method for writing down even very large numbers.
  
  

• NAGARJUNA 1 ( DISCOVERER OF ALLOYS )      

     Around 2nd BC, in a laboratory in Nagarjuna Konda , Andhra Pradesh , Nagarjuna 1, a Buddhist monk, eclaimed in joy as he discovered the process of alloying. His book, Rasarathnakara, retains notes on the process of extraction of silver, tin and copper from their ores and their purification. They also mention the process of distillation, sublimation, calcination and colouring of metals.