Problems

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Found: 4

You are mixing four magic potions, and you choose how much of each one to use. Let \(a\), \(b\), \(c\), and \(d\) be the amounts of the four potions you pour in, each chosen between \(0\) and \(1\) liter. The wizard tells you that the magic power of your mix is given by the formula \[a + b + c + d - ab - bc - cd - da.\] What is the largest magic power you can create?

Is it possible to:

a) load two coins so that the probability of “heads” and “tails” were different, and the probability of getting any of the combinations “tails, tails,” “heads, tails”, “heads, heads” be the same?

b) load two dice so that the probability of getting any amount from 2 to 12 would be the same?

The point \(O\), lying inside the triangle \(ABC\), is connected by segments with the vertices of the triangle. Prove that the variance of the set of angles \(AOB\), \(AOC\) and \(BOC\) is less than a) \(10\pi ^2/27\); b) \(2\pi ^2/9\).