Transcript Ancient India`s Science By: Michelle Veevers

Ancient India’s Science
by Michelle Veevers
The first known use of numbers in India was in the
time of harappans, about 300 B.C. Indians began
using the counting tokens, but later switched to
writing their numbers down, using pictographs.
Mathematicians were using the idea of infinity and
later came up with the number system.
By 100 A.D., Indians were writing numbers. Indian
mathematics started spreading to West Asia, then
to Arica and Europe. In 2500 B.C., the harappans
had created a sewage system at their city.
From what we know, harappans were knew a lot
about geometry. India’s greatest invention was the
number zero. They started using zero as a
placeholder, to make it easier to add and multiply
numbers. Through their translations, zero means
nothing.
About 1000 B.C., doctors in northern India
wrote the Atharva Veda, a medical textbook
explaining how to treat diseases. The Athrava
Veda says that diseases are caused by bad
spirits, and to treat the disease by killing the
spirits with poisons or spells.
Possibly the oldest system of astrology in the
world belongs to India. Indian astrology makes
little use of the constellations in the sky and is
based on the date, place, and time of birth.