[Math] probability of pick same color ball

probability

An urn contains 10 balls: 4 red and 6 blue. A second urn contains 16 red balls and an unknown number of blue balls. A single ball is drawn from each urn. The probability that both balls are the same color is 0.44. Calculate the number of blue balls in the second urn.

I just found this question on internet ( the problem changes everytime you refresh the browser, maybe you see different problems now).

I have never learned probability before, actually I'm going to learn it next semester. At first glance, I thought this problem seems like high school math problem, but I'm wrong, I couldn't figure out the right way to solve this problem. if anyone could explain how to approach this question please!

Best Answer

Let's set x = blue balls. Let's take 2 cases:

Case 1) They are both red. The chances of that is $$\frac{4}{10}\cdot \frac{16}{16+x}$$ Case 2) They are both blue. The chance of that is $$\frac{6}{10}\cdot \frac{x}{16+x}$$

So now we have the total chance: $$\frac{4}{10}\cdot \frac{16}{16+x}+\frac{6}{10}\cdot \frac{x}{16+x}=\frac{44}{100}$$ Simplifying this, we get $$\frac{3x+32}{5x+80}=0.44$$ Solving, we get $$x=\boxed{4}$$ Also, I wouldn't consider this high school math, as I'm in 7th grade :D