Development of Science

in Asia
ASIA
-Asia is the biggest continent in the
world and the home of many ancient
civilizations.
-It is a host to many cultural,
economic, scientific, and political
activitIes of all ages.
-In the field of science, technology,
and mathematics, great civilizations
have stood out: India, China, and the
Middle East civilizations.
ASIA
-These civilizations were incomparable in terms of their contributions to the
development of knowledge during their time
INDIA
-One of the oldest civilizations in the world,
the Indian civilization has a strong tradition
of science and technology.
-Ancient India was a land of sages and
seers as well as a land of scholars and
scientists.
-Research has shown that from making the
best steel in the world to teaching the world
to count, India was actively contributing to
the field of science and technology
centuries long before modern laboratories
were set up.
INDIA
-Many theories and techniques
discovered by the ancient Indians have
created and strengthened the
fundamentals of modern science and
technology.

-While some of these groundbreaking

contributions have been acknowledged,
some are still unknown to most.
 INDIA
The Idea of Zero

-Early counting systems only saw the

zero as a placeholder—not a number
with its own unique value or properties.

-A full grasp of zero’s importance would

not arrive until the seventh century A.D.
in India.
 INDIA
The Idea of Zero

-There, the mathematician Brahmagupta

and others used small dots under
numbers to show a zero placeholder, but
they also viewed the zero as having a
null value, called “sunya.”

-Brahmagupta was also the first to show

that subtracting a number from itself
results in zero
INDIA
The Decimal System.

-It is India that gave us the ingenious

method of expressing all numbers by
means of ten symbols, each symbol
receiving a value of position as well as
an absolute value; a profound and
important idea which appears so
simple to us now that we ignore its
true merit.
INDIA
The Decimal System.

-But its very simplicity, the great ease

which it has lent to all computations,
puts our arithmetic in the first rank of
useful inventions; and we shall
appreciate the grandeur of this
achievement the more when we
remember that it escaped the genius
of Archimedes and Apollonius, two
of the greatest men produced by
antiquity.
INDIA
Ayurveda.
-Ayurveda is a traditional Indian medicinal
system being practiced for thousands of
years.
-Ayurveda, a natural system of medicine,
originated in India more than 3,000 years
ago. The term Ayurveda is derived from the
Sanskrit words ayur (life) and veda
(science or knowledge). Thus, Ayurveda
translates to knowledge of life.fication
process, followed by a special diet, herbal
remedies, massage therapy, yoga, and
meditation
INDIA
Ayurveda.
-Based on the idea that disease is due
to an imbalance or stress in a person's
consciousness, Ayurveda encourages
certain lifestyle interventions and natural
therapies to regain a balance between
the body, mind, spirit, and the
environment. -Ayurveda treatment starts
with an internal purification process,
followed by a special diet, herbal
remedies, massage therapy, yoga, and
meditation.
INDIA
Mohenjo-daro ruler. Bisht (1982) as cited by
Serafica et al., (2017) noted that the earliest
traces of mathematical knowledge in the Indian
subcontinent appeared in the Indus Valley
Civilization.

-The people according to Bisht (1982), tried to

standardize measurement of length to a high
degree of accuracy and designed a ruler.
Rulers made from Ivory were in use by the
Indus Valley Civilization in what today is
Pakistan and some parts of Western India prior
to 1500 BCE. Excavations at Lothal (2400
BCE) have yielded one such ruler calibrated to
about 1/16 of an inch—less than 2 millimeters.
INDIA
Ian Whitelaw (2007) holds that ‘The
Mohenjo-Daro ruler is divided into units
corresponding to 1.32 inches (33.5 mm)
and these are marked out in decimal
subdivisions with amazing accuracy—to
within 0.005 of an inch. Ancient bricks
found throughout the region have
dimensions that correspond to these
units.
INDIA
Hindu Sine. Aryabhata I (ad 476) is one
of the greatest mathematicians and
astronomers of ancient India. He
dominated the ancient Indian
mathematical world as Plato did the
Greek philosophical world. Aryabhata I,
well known for his innovations of the
astronomical methods, was responsible
for a new school of astronomy in
ancient India— the Aryabhata I School.
INDIA
Hindu Sine.

The whole host of later Kerala

astronomers treated him as “acharya”
(Master). In his celebrated composition
“Aryabhatiyam,” he has provided the
table for trigonometric ratio, “Hindu
Sine” (called “Jya” in Sanskrit) for acute
angles at intervals of 33°4. The
accuracy of these values is remarkable
(Puttaswamy, 2012).
INDIA
Gravity as a force of attraction.
The Indian astronomer Brahmagupta, in
his Brahmasphuta Siddhanta ("The
Opening of the Universe") (628),
recognized gravity as a force of
attraction. Gravity was not studied only
in the occidental philosophy, in fact, in
ancient India Aryabhata first identified
the force to explain the reason why
objects do not fall when the earth
rotates, Brahmagupta described gravity
as an attractive force and used the term
"gruhtvaakarshan" for gravity.
INDIA
Founder of Mathematical Analysis.
Madhava of Sangamagrama, the
founder of the Kerala School of
Astronomy and Mathematics, is credited
with the discovery of the power series
expansions of the trigonometric sine
and cosine functions more than two
centuries before these series were
rediscovered in Europe by Sir Isaac
Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in
c.1665 CE.
INDIA
Astronomy.

There have been several general expositions

of pre-colonial Indian astronomy , with scholars
often making use of S.B. Dikshit’s Bharatiya
Iyotish Sastra (1896) and its information
regarding notable Indian astronomers-
Aryabhata (476-550), Varahamihira (507-87)
and numerous others – and their texts. These
histories have explored methods of reckoning
time and computing celestial positions –
perhaps central concerns of traditional Indian
astronomy since Vedic and Siddhantic times-as
well as the development of astronomical
instruments in India.
INDIA
Astronomy.

There has been elucidation of

importance of compendia other than
the Karanas (expositions containing
mean longitudes for celestial bodies)
and Kosthakas (tables for determining
planetary position).
INDIA
Early astronomy in India—like in other
cultures— was intertwined with
religion. The first textual mention of
astronomical concepts comes from the
Vedas—religious literature of India.
According to Sarma (2008): “One finds
in the Rigveda intelligent speculations
about the genesis of the universe from
nonexistence, the configuration of the
universe, the spherical self-supporting
earth, and the year of 360 days with 12
equal parts of 30 days each each with
a periodical intercalary month.”
DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE IN CHINA
The history of science and technology in China is both long and rich with science and
technological contribution. In antiquity, independent of Greek philosophers and other
civilizations, ancient Chinese philosophers made significant advances in science,
technology, mathematics, and astronomy. The first recorded observations of comets, solar
eclipses, and supernovae were made in China (New World Encyclopedia, 2007).
DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE IN CHINA
Chinese civilizations have greatly
influenced many of its neighboring
countries like Korea, Japan, Philippines,
Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia,
Myanmar, and other countries that
belong to the old Silk Road.
CHINA
Acupuncture.
Acupuncture is generally held to have
originated in China, being first
mentioned in documents dating from a
few hundred years leading up to the
Common Era . Acupuncture is an
ancient Chinese form of treatment
typically involving the insertion of fine
steel needles into specific points on
the body surface. Its use worldwide is
generally widespread.
CHINA
Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Chinese herbal medicine has a strikingly

persistent tradition, surviving cultural and
dynastic revolutions, with classic texts being
preserved as living guides for physicians up to
the present day. The earliest known text was
unearthed in Hunnan province and dates from
the fourth century bc. It lists over 200 herbs,
with instructions for 52 pharmaceutical
preparations. In around 250 bc, a herbal
compendium, the Pen Tsao Ching was written
in the name of the legendary Emperor Shen
Nung, who was said to have lived 5000 years
previously.
CHINA
Compass.

-was for religious use.

When a new house was being built, the

used it to see if the house was faced in
perfect harmony with nature (which meant
they thought if you faced your house to
magnetic north, you and nature would get
along). The compass started out as a
wooden circle with markings on it, and a
magnetic spoon on top.
CHINA
Earthquake weathercock.

This is a contraption that told them

when and where an earthquake would
come. This machine looked like a giant
six-foot bronze pot that had dragon
heads lining the top, and ivory frogs
under each dragon.
CHINA
Fan.

This was mostly carried by women and

soldiers. Most of the fans were made
out of bamboo and silk.

The fan was basically many bamboo

spines sticking out in almost a half circle
with silk wrapped around it.
CHINA
Fireworks.

Fireworks were invented in the T'ang

dynasty. These were originally for
shows, but later on they used them to
scare of enemies in war. The fireworks
were mainly small bamboo cases filled
with gunpowder, and a fuse was put on
the side.
CHINA
Kites.

The kites were most of the time silk

squares, held together by bamboo.
Created many things with bamboo,
which made a lot of baskets and holders
and were really strong.
CHINA
Abacus.
They invented the Asian Abacus. The main
applications of mathematics in traditional
China were architecture and geography. Pi
was calculated by 5th century
mathematician Zu Chongzhi to the seventh
digit. The decimal system was used in
China as early as 14 Century BC.
"Pascal's" Triangle was discovered by
mathematician Liu Ju-Hsieh, long before
Pascal was born.
CHINA
Gunpowder.

In the T'ang dynasty gunpowder was

accidentally invented in an attempt to
make the elixir of life, to make the
emperor immortal. Cannon - were just
bamboo cases holding gunpowder and
were put in a big iron cannon.
CHINA
Gunpowder.

Bamboo or iron basket, which was like

a smaller version of the cannon, that
had arrows with rockets attached to
them. The arrow rockets would shoot
out of the miniature cannon like bullets
out of a gun wood.
CHINA
Silk.

First harvest silk, and make clothes,

fans, kites, toys, paper, and lots of other
things from it.
CHINA
CHINA
Wheelbarrow. Invented in the Han
dynasty and used for carrying loads too
heavy for a normal person's back to
support. The wheelbarrow was originally
wood, so the Chinese nicknamed it the
'wooden ox'.
CHINA
Paper. Ancient Chinese were the first to
invent paper and printing. Their early script
contained 80,000 different characters. The
invention of paper greatly affects human
history. Paper already existed in China
since 105 A.C, however, a eunuch named
Cai Lun (ca. 50 AD – 121) made significant
innovation and helped drive its widespread
adoption. His advanced paper-making
technology then spread to central Asia and
the world through the Silk Road.
DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
For hundreds of years, while
Europe was mired in the Dark
Ages, the medieval Islamic
empire was at the forefront of
science – in sad contrast to the
state of many Muslim countries
today.
MIDDLE EAST
Mathematics.

The greatest period of sustained

scientific advances during the 1500
years between the time of the Ancient
Greeks and the European
Renaissance took place in the great
centres of learning across the medieval
Islamic empire, such as Baghdad,
Cairo, Cordoba and Samarkand.

For instance, it is in Baghdad that we

find the very first book on algebra
(called Kitab al-Jabr, from which we
derive the word “algebra”).
MIDDLE EAST
-It was unlike anything seen before, and a
paradigm shift from the work of the Greek
number theorist Diophantus. -Written by
the 9th-century mathematician
al-Khwarizmi, it sparked many great
advances in mathematics, all the way to
the 15th-century Persian al-Kashi in
Samerkand (who, among other
achievements, calculated π to 16 decimal
places), before the Europeans regained
the lead in mathematics once again.
MIDDLE EAST
-Medicine and Anatomy.
Advances in medicine and anatomy would
lead to Arabic texts by scholars such as
al-Razi (Razes) and Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
replacing the Greek works of Galen and
Hippocrates in the libraries of medieval
Europe. The philosophical work of Ibn Sina
and Ibn Rushd (Averroës) influenced later
European scholars such as Roger Bacon
and St Thomas Aquinas.
MIDDLE EAST
Approximately 1000 years ago, a
physician by the name of Ibn Sina,
known in the West as “Avicenna,” wrote
7 conditions for “The recognition of the
strengths of the characteristics of
medicines through experimentation.” Ibn
Sina proposed applying logic to the
testing of drugs, and in doing so, he
wrote the earliest known treatise related
to clinical trials
MIDDLE EAST
The Cordoban physician al-Zahrawi
(Abulcasis) invented more than 200 surgical
instruments – many of which are still in use
today, such as forceps and the surgical syringe.
At about this time, we also witness the birth of
industrial chemistry, with remarkably
sophisticated scientific methods being
employed over the haphazard practice of
alchemy, and advances in fields such as optics
by the likes of Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen),
considered as the father of Modern Optics for
his empirical proof of the intromission theory of
light, that would not be matched until Newton.
For a period spanning over half a millennium,
the international language of science was
Arabic.
MIDDLE EAST
Abu Musa Jabir Ibn Hayyan Al-Azdi,
sometimes called al-Harrani and
al-Sufi, is considered the father of Arab
chemistry and one of the founders of
modern pharmacy.
MIDDLE EAST
There are numerous muslim
scholars who made significant
contributions in the field of
science, mathematics, astronomy,
philosophy, and even in the field of
social sciences.
The decline of this golden age of
Islam started in the 11th to 13th
century due to the conquest of the
Mongols whereby libraries,
observatories, and other learning
institutions were destroyed.