Original Question
Hilbert's original question was more complicated: given any two tetrahedra T1 and T2 with equal base area and equal height (and therefore equal volume), is it always possible to find a finite number of tetrahedra, so that when these tetrahedra are glued in some way to T1 and also glued to T2, the resulting polyhedra are scissors-congruent?
Dehn's invariant can be used to yield a negative answer also to this stronger question.
Read more about this topic: Hilbert's Third Problem
Famous quotes containing the words original and/or question:
“It is conventional to call “monster” any blending of dissonant elements.... I call “monster” every original inexhaustible beauty.”
—Alfred Jarry (1873–1907)
“The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is “What does a woman want?” [Was will das Weib?]”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)