Category: Misc

India has been the cradle of many scientific discoveries. Here we profile an Indian scientist and one ancient Indian technology

Aryabhatta was the first mathematician astronomer from the classical age of India. His works in mathematics and astronomy have been extensively used by the Greeks and others in the Middle East. His most famous work ‘Ayrabhatiya’ covering several branches of mathematics such as algebra, arithmetic, plane and spherical trigonometry was compiled when he was just 23 years old.

He was the first mathematician to give what later came to be known as the tables of sine, cosine, versine, and converse sine to four decimal spots, which brought forth trigonometry. Aryabhatta has named the initial 10 decimal places and derived the methods for extracting square roots and summing the arithmetic series. But it was his work on the place value system and discovery of zero that was of utmost significance.

In Astronomy, he discovered the position of nine planets, provided the circumference and measurement of the Earth, pronounced that the moon has no light of its own and concluded that the earth is round and that it rotates on its own axis thus causing days and nights. He also made predictions about the solar and lunar eclipses, duration of the day as well as the distance between the Earth and the Moon. India’s first indigenous satellite was named after this legend.

Ancient India has given us many water conservation techniques that are still used in many places across the country. Of the many unique forms, the stepwells built over thousand years ago are not only an architectural marvel but innovation at its best. Let us take the example of Chand Baori, a stepwell built over a thousand years ago in the Abhaneri village of Rajasthan. This 13-storey deep well is one of the oldest, deepest and largest stepwells in the world with 3,500 narrow steps arranged in perfect symmetry to the bottom of the well. At the bottom of the well, the air would remain 5-6 degrees Celsius cooler than at the surface. The Baori has a precise geometrical pattern with the steps forming a magical maze. As you go down the steps, you can see the baori narrowing towards the bottom. The wall of the well is symmetrically lined with two flights of steps each on three sides of the wall. It is based on the concept of equilateral triangle pattern where three smaller triangles would form a bigger triangle. Its deep and well-rounded bottom along with other geometrical shapes like rhombus, and diagonal criss-crossing lines makes Chand Baori look like an inverted pyramid