page_title: List of Indian inventions and discoveries
section_title: Sciences
hierarchical_section_title: List of Indian inventions and discoveries / Discoveries / Sciences
caption_attribution_description: Molecular Model of Ammonium Nitrite in 3D. Colour&#160;code: &#160;&#160;Carbon,&#160;C:&#160;black &#160;&#160;Hydrogen,&#160;H:&#160;white &#160;&#160;Oxygen,&#160;O:&#160;red &#160;&#160;Nitrogen,&#160;N:&#160;blue
context_page_description: This list of Indian inventions and discoveries details the inventions, scientific discoveries and contributions of India, including the ancient, classical and post-classical nations in the subcontinent historically referred to as India and the modern Indian state. It draws from the whole cultural and technological history of India, during which architecture, astronomy, cartography, metallurgy, logic, mathematics, metrology and mineralogy were among the branches of study pursued by its scholars. During recent times science and technology in the Republic of India has also focused on automobile engineering, information technology, communications as well as research into space and polar technology.
  For the purposes of this list, inventions are regarded as technological firsts developed in India, and as such does not include foreign technologies which India acquired through contact. It also does not include technologies or discoveries developed elsewhere and later invented separately in India, nor inventions by Indian emigres in other places. Changes in minor concepts of design or style and artistic innovations do not appear on in the lists.
context_section_description: Gravity: Aryabhata first identified the force to explain why objects do not spin out when the earth rotates, Brahmagupta described gravity as an attractive force and used the term gurutvākarṣaṇ for gravity. Aryabhata was the one who first developed a heliocentric model of solar system, where the planets spin on their axes and follow orbits around the Sun while the moon revolving around the earth in epicycles.
  Ammonium nitrite, synthesis in pure form: Prafulla Chandra Roy  synthesised NH₄NO₂ in its pure form, and became the first scientist to have done so. Prior to Ray's synthesis of Ammonium nitrite it was thought that the compound undergoes rapid thermal decomposition releasing nitrogen and water in the process.
  Ashtekar variables: In theoretical physics, Ashtekar (new) variables, named after Abhay Ashtekar who invented them, represent an unusual way to rewrite the metric on the three-dimensional spatial slices in terms of a SU(2) gauge field and its complementary variable. Ashtekar variables are the key building block of loop quantum gravity.
  Atom: One of the remarkable scientists of ancient India was Kanad, who is said to have developed the atomic theory centuries before John Dalton was born. He speculated the existence of Anu or a small indestructible particles, similar to an atom. He also explained that Anu can have two states – absolute peace and a state of movement. He wrote that atoms of the same substance combined with each other and in a specific manner to form synchronised dvyanuka (diatomic molecules) which then generated tryanuka (triatomic molecules).
  Bhatnagar-Mathur Magnetic Interference Balance: Invented jointly by Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar and K.N. Mathur in 1928, the so-called 'Bhatnagar-Mathur Magnetic Interference Balance' was a modern instrument used for measuring various magnetic properties. The first appearance of this instrument in Europe was at a Royal Society exhibition in London, where it was later marketed by British firm Messers Adam Hilger and Co, London.
  Bhabha scattering: In 1935, Indian nuclear physicist Homi J. Bhabha published a paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series A, in which he performed the first calculation to determine the cross section of electron-positron scattering. Electron-positron scattering was later named Bhabha scattering, in honour of his contributions in the field.
  Bose–Einstein statistics, condensate: On 4 June 1924 the Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose mailed a short manuscript to Albert Einstein entitled Planck's Law and the Light Quantum Hypothesis seeking Einstein's influence to get it published after it was rejected by the prestigious journal Philosophical Magazine. The paper introduced what is today called Bose statistics, which showed how it could be used to derive the Planck blackbody spectrum from the assumption that light was made of photons. Einstein, recognizing the importance of the paper translated it into German himself and submitted it on Bose's behalf to the prestigious Zeitschrift für Physik. Einstein later applied Bose's principles on particles with mass and quickly predicted the Bose-Einstein condensate.
  Boson: The name boson was coined by Paul Dirac to commemorate the contribution of the Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose. In quantum mechanics, a boson (/ˈboʊsɒn/, /ˈboʊzɒn/) is a particle that follows Bose–Einstein statistics. Bosons make up one of the two classes of particles, the other being fermions.
  Braunstein-Ghosh-Severini Entropy: This modelling of entropy using network theory is used in the analysis of quantum gravity and is named after Sibasish Ghosh and his teammates, Samuel L. Braunstein and Simone Severini.
  Chandrasekhar limit and Chandrasekhar number: Discovered by and named after Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for his work on stellar structure and stellar evolution . Subrrahmanyan Chandrasekhar discovered the calculation used to determine the future of what would happen to a dying star. If the star’s mass is less than the Chandrasekhar Limit it will shrink to become a wh
caption: Bengali Chemist Prafulla Chandra Roy synthesised NH4NO2 in its pure form.
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