Science in Sanskrit

Organic Chemicals in Sanskrit This is the first part in a prospective series of blog posts where I coin some chemical names in Sanskrit. This may be sugars, acids, proteins, etc. In this blog, I will be naming the sugars and the some of the Amines, Alcohols, and Alkanes. The idea is to move away from English words in Indian langauges, while not sacrificing unity. However, I do recomend trying to translate these words into vernacular languages as much as possible, because ultimately we want people to understand science and not get tripped up by jargon. Element Roots In oder to say sutuff like "hydro-" pr "chloro-" or "carbo-". it is necessary that we have short hand froms of the elements. This is so we can make words that are less syllables. Here is a short list. I will make a longer one later: Hydrogen (उद्रजन​ ):  उदक्य​ Carbon (अङ्गर​ ):  अङ्गर​ Chlorine (हरित-द्रव्य​):  हरि Oxygen ( प्राणजन​ ):  प्रान्य​ Nitrogen (सोरजन​ ):  सोर्य ​Phosphorous: (भास्वर...

 Cetecean Taxonomy Ignorance is calling an Orca a whale, knowledge is calling it a dolphin, but erudition is knowing that an Orca is a whale. A whale is a anything of the infraorder Ceteacea. Thus the Blue Whale, a Harbour Porpoise, the Sperm Whale and an Amazonian River Dolphin are whales! My favourite fun fact about whales is that they are of the order Artiodactyla ( युग्मङ्गुलिन् ), together with cows, pigs, deer, and hippopotamuses. We shall be translating the cetecean taxa into Sanskrit! The infraorder Cetecea is simply "whale" which in Sanskrit is  तिमि . There are two types of whales, Baleen Whales and Toothed Whales. The former is the parvorder Mysticeti  and the latter is Odontoceti . I shall name the Baleen Whales as "filter mouth whales" or  शोधन्यास्यतिमि  and the latter as "tooth whales" or  दन्ततिमि . There are four families in Mysticeti: Balaenidae, Neob alaenidae,  Balaenopteridae, Eschrichitiidae.  The first we shall look at is...

 Dinosaurs in Sanskrit Dinosaurs are those creatures of the clase Dinosauria, known for having their legs straight down from the hips. Fun fact, dinosaurs are alive, we call them birds! The name Dinosaur means "terrible lizard", which is a misnomer as they are not lizards. They are more closely related to crocodiles, but that relation is distant. For this reason, a fitting name for dinosaur, as per my taxonomic naming system, is " अपनक्र​ " or " भीमापनक्र​ ", where " भीम " means "terrible". Then everytime we want to use the suffix "-saurus" like "stegosaurus", we use "- अपनक्र " as a suffix.   For the suffix "raptor", we will use " ग्राहिन् " for a raptor is anything that catches its prey by "grasping". We may use suffix " घोरापनक्र​ " or simply " घोर " for any ferocious dinosaur like T.Rex or Spinosaurus.     There are two main clades of dinosaurs, Saurisch...

 Quantum Mechanics Terms in Sanskrit So in this blog, I will be going over some basic Quantum Mechanics related terms in Sanskrit. Quantum Mechanics is essentially dealing with extremely small things, namely with the fact that a particle can be a wave at the same time. Quantum Mechanics is a complex feild, which is why I will be trnalsting only the basic terms into Sanskrit.  Quantum Mechanics is noted for the fact that it deals with discrete quantities. You can have one particle or two particles, but not 1 and half particles. So Quantum is better understood as discrete , which in Sanskirt is  पृथक् . So Quantum Mechanics is  पृथक्त्वभौतिक ​, which is better translated as "Quantum Physics".    Now, let us start with the particle , which in Sanskrit is just  कण​ . A wave is just  ऊर्मि  or  ऊर्मिका . Since particles are also waves, if we want, we can make a signle word for such an "entity". I suggest:  कणोर्मि ,  कणोर्मिका , or ...

Rodent Taxonomy in Sanskrit I will name the rodent groups into Sanskrit. Rodentia is the order of mammals that include mice, rats, squirrels, lemmings, and much more.  They are the the most diverse group of mammals, which is why I am drawing special attention to them.  Below is the phylogenetic tree for the Rodents. This is not how you draw a phylogenetic tree, but I did it this way for convenience. Let us start with Rodent. Hindi uses the word  कृन्तक​ , which means "chewer". Rodents are so so called for they gnaw; rodere  (whence rodent) means "gnaw" in Latin. The Sanskrit cognate is the verb  रदति . Thus if going by cognates, Rodent could be  रादक​ . Both I shall use.  Now onto the suborder Hystricomorpha . They include porcupines, guinea pigs, capybaras, etc. The name means "form of porcupines", and we can render this using the "-आकृति" ending.  Porcupine (old world porcupine) in Sanskrit is  शलल or शल्लक ​ . Thus the family of old world ...

 Some Machine Terms in Sanskrit Some terms like fan, gear, lever, or thruster are very simple technological terms that are likely absent in many Indian languages, which use the English terms. I am about to change that by introducing Sanskrit terms for this. This is actually easier than thought, because we have Sanskrit texts that deal mechanical contrivances (Samarangana Sutradhara, Chapter 31), and end up using Sanskrit terms. Of course, other times, I have to coin the words. the Spoken Sanskrit Dictionary has also coined words. With that let us go.  Simple Mechencial Devices: A gear  is a famous simple machine, which is essentially a wheel with teeth. Appropriately, I will call it  दन्तिचक्र​ , or "teethed wheel".  Flaps  are a sheet like thing, especially those found on airplanes. They are mentioned in the Samarangana Sutradhara, as  गजकर्ण​, which literally means "elephant ear", as flaps are like the ears of an elephant. For that matter a bell...