| dc.description.abstract | Dimitrije Danić was born on January 21,1862 in Belgrade, and died on
March 23,1932. He finished elementary school in Belgrade, secondary school
in Zurich; then he completed three semesters at the Polytechnical School at
Berlin and seven semesters at the Department of Natural Science and
Mathematics of Berlin University, majoring in mathematics.
He defended his Ph. D. Conformal Mapping of Elliptic Paraboloid on
Plane at. Jena University, in 1885, where he also passed oral part of his
doctoral examination.
He applied for the post of lecturer of lower mathematical analysis at
the Belgrade College for two times, in 1885 and in 1887, but was not
accepted as full time professor. Disappointed, he left the Belgrade College
and joined the Military Academy where, after only nine months, he was
elected full time professor of mathematics, in December 1888. He was
teaching at the Military Academy till his retirement.
Dimitrije Daniel lectured all the courses in mathematics at the Military
Academy, which, according to school curriculum were of the same quality as
courses taught at the Belgrade College and later on at the University.
In his doctoral dissertation Dimitrije Daniel considered conformal
mapping of elliptic paraboloid to plane according to Gauss definition, i.e. the
mapping of characteristic inter-sections of elliptic paraboloid for different
forms of the function.
In his work the author used differential and integral calculus for
solving obtained differential equations. He had to solve complex elliptical
integrals. His contribution is also in introducing elliptical transformations of
variables and in using elliptical functions. He considered their
interconnection, and connections with elliptical integrals. In the widest sense
of its meaning, he used the theory of complex functions of complex variables.
Bearing in mind the time when this work was presented to the public
and the level of development of mathematical analysis applied at the
Belgrade College, then it could be concluded, without any doubt, that his
dissertation represented significant contribution to the development of
mathematics here.
He wrote eight textbooks and manuals:
Formulas and Theorems in Trigonometry (1888); Analytical Geometry on
Plane (1893); Lectures on Trigonometry with Theory of Logarithm and Complex
Numbers (1889); Foundations of Infinitesimal Calculus — Differential Calculus
(1920); Foundations and Theory of Combination and Principles of Probability (1921); Foundations of Infinitesimal Calculus and Integral Calculus (1922);
Analytical Geometry of Plane and Space (1922); Formulas and Theorems of
Mathematics (1927).
All those works consist of over 2.000 textbook pages. Some of the
textbooks were a pioneering endeavor, as for example Analytical Geometry
of Plane and Analytical Geometry of Space, or Foundations of Theory of
Combination and Principles of Probability.
At the Military Academy, professor Danić was very strict professor,
person of high criterium vis-a-vis his students. Besides his pedagogical work,
he was interested in the problems of inner and outer ballistics of various arms
and weapons. He was analysing the results of combat marksmanship, fire
dispersion and marking of the target. In his analysis he applied his
knowledge on Jacob Bernoulli's independent experiments.
For his distinguished achievements he was decorated with the Order
of St.Sava of IV, III and II class. | sr |
