India- first in history on isolation of Zinc

Before the close of 16^th century,zinc was isolated by a process known neither to the Arab Civilisation nor the Europeans who learnt the art in the early 19^th century. It has now been suggested by archaeological excavations at Zawar in Rajasthan that Indians knew how to isolate zinc by about the 1^st century Christ.

The isolation of zinc was accompanied by another achievement, namely the manufacture of brass, an alloy of copper and zinc. India seems to have discovered the freezing mixture before Europe. Saltpetre (potassium nitrate) was used for cooling water before 1580. This discovery has been attributed to Emperor Akbar.

 

Aryabhatta- The astronomer

  Aryabhatta, born in 476 A.D., was the greatest astronomer of the Gupta Period. It was his firm belief that the earth was rotating, and heavens resting. He also gave a scientific explanation for the occurrence of eclipse as opposed to the prevailing ideas of Rahu and Ketu.

Another great achievement to Aryabhatta‘s credit was the construction of trigonometric tables. He computed trigonometric tables and used the values ‘sine’ and ‘cosine’ in his astronomical calculations. He developed formulas for the sum of arithmetic and geometric series, and worked out the sum of series such as ∑n

 

al-Biruni: The famous traveller to Ancient India

   al-Biruni (973 -1048 A.D.) had visited India and travelled extensively. He had studied the social life, political system and religious beliefs of the Indian people in depth. In his writings he gave a detailed account of the level of scientific developments in India, in the early decades of eleventh century A.D.. according to al-Biruni Indians had tried to calculate latitudes of some places like Kannauj, Thanessar, Srinagar. The calculations of longitudes was based on timings of the eclipse at different places. Their prime meridian passed thru Ujjain.

Astronomy in 17th century India

Astronomy was used not only for working out the calender, the dates of the eclipses and for the determination of time but also for casting horoscopes for astrological purposes. Firoza Shah Tughlaq (1351-88) established an observatory where a special type of astrolabe and water clock were set up. The astrolabes made in India during the 17^th century were no doubt an achievement of metal and wood-workers and of mathematical arts. Also, a high degree of accuracy was achieved in circular gradation, which affected all measurements.

The most important stride in the field was made at the beginning ofthe eighteenth century. Raja Jai Singh, under the patronage of Emperor Muhammad Shah, established observatories at a number of places, such as Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain, Benaras and Mathura. He paid special attention to the instruments for fixing time and determining latitudes.

A familiarity with the knowledge of specific gravity and laws of motion, based on classic sources, was shown by Abu’l Fazl (d. 1603). The application of measures of specific gravity were given a practical turn by Akbar when he sought to determine the

quality of timber.