[Math] Discarding 2 balls without color known – probablity 3rd ball is red

probability

A box contains 7 red and 13 blue balls. Two balls are randomly selected (without replacement) and are discarded without their colors being seen. A third ball is drawn randomly.

(a) Find the probability that the third ball is red.

(b) Given that the third ball is red, find the probability that both discarded balls were blue.

Best Answer

The answer to (a) is clearly $\dfrac{7}{20}$. This is because every one of the $20$ balls is equally likely to be the third ball drawn.

For (b), let $R$ be the event that the third ball drawn is red. Let $B$ be the event the first two balls drawn are blue. We want the conditional probability $\Pr(B|R)$. By the usual expression for conditional probability, we have $$\Pr(B|R)=\frac{\Pr(B\cap R)}{\Pr(R)}.$$

We already know $\Pr(R)$, so all we need is $\Pr(B\cap R)$. This is not hard to calculate: $$\Pr(B\cap R)=\frac{13}{20}\cdot\frac{12}{19}\cdot \frac{7}{18}.$$