Congruent number problem (Q5920625)

These are the notes of a lecture given by the author on October 5, 2002, in the Enrichment Programme for the Young Mathematics Talent of the Department of Mathematics and the Institute of Mathematical Sciences of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. A natural number \(N\) is called congruent if there exists a right-angled triangle with sides length rational numbers and area \(N\). The author presents Fermat's proof by infinite descent that 1 is not a congruent number and discusses the two unsolved problems: 1) Prove that there is an algorithm for deciding in a finite number of steps whether a given positive integer \(N\) is congruent; 2) Prove that every square-free integer of the form \(8n+5\) or \(8n+6\) or \(8n+7\) \((n=0,1,2,\dots)\) is congruent. He relates these with the conjecture of Birch--Swinnerton-Dyer.