Hilbert’s Third Problem

Abstract

On August 8, 1900, at the second International Congress of Mathematicians at Paris, David Hilbert read his famous report entitled Mathematical problems [14]. The great majority of twenty three problems posed by Hilbert pertain to new rapidly developing branches of Mathematics. Only one problem, the third, deals with questions seemingly related to elementary Geometry. The statement of the problem is certainly elementary but the full solution is not at all easy.