MathDB
Miklós Schweitzer 2000, Problem 10

Source: Miklós Schweitzer 2000

July 30, 2016
college contestsMiklos Schweitzerprobabilityuniform distribution

Problem Statement

Joe generates 4 independent random numbers in (0,1)(0,1) according to the uniform distribution. He shows one the numbers to Bill, who has to guess whether the number shown is one of the extremal numbers (that is, the smallest or the greatest) of the four numbers or not. Can Joe have a deterministic strategy such that no matter what Bill's method is, the probability of the right guess of Bill is at most 12\frac12?