Book on the pharmacopoeia of medicine

Biruni who was proficient in several languages and had an inquisitive mind, was interested in gathering precise information on plants and their medicinal uses. One of his most important works was a major pharmacopoeia, the "Kitab al-saydala fi al-tibb" which described all the medicines known in his time. He listed synonyms of drug names in Farsi, Syriac, Greek, Baluchi, Afghani and Kurdish and Indian languages. 


​weight of minerals and GEMSTONES


Biruni measures the specific gravity of several gemstones and discovered that there is a correlation between the specific gravity of an object and the volume of water it displaces. He measured the weights of various liquids, and recorded the differences in weight between fresh water and saline water and between hot and cold water. His measurements are very close to modern measurements. 

introducing the notion of specific gravity

What is specific gravity?
A substance's specific gravity is the ratio of that substance's density to the density of water at 4 degrees centigrade. Because the density of water at 4 degrees is 1,000 kg/m3, the ratio is easy to find. Anything with a specific gravity greater than 1,000 sinks in pure water and anything with specific gravity less than 1000 floats. So, gold with specific gravity of 19,300 sinks, while ice, with a specific gravity of 917 floats.

In the field of mechanics, the notion of specific gravity was first introduced by Biruni. 


​inventing the CONICAL measure

Biruni invented the conical measure to find the ratio between the weight of a substance in air and the weight of water displaced.