Urn Problems

1. An urn contains 4 white and 3 red marbles.

(a) If two marbles are selected without replacement from this urn,
what is the probability that the two marbles selected are white?
(2/7)
For the rst pick we have probability of 4/7 and for the second pick
we have a one less white ball, 3/6. The probability for selecting
both balls is 4/7 3/6.
Or we can view this as choosing 2 white balls out of 4 divided by
the number of ways to choose 2 balls from 7,

4
2

7
2
.
(b) If two marbles are selected with replacement from this urn, what
is the probability that the two marbles selected are white? (16/49)
For the rst pick we have a have probability of 4/7 and for the
second pick we have a probability of 4/7. Therefore there is 4/7
4/7 of picking two white balls with replacement.
2. An urn contains 3 white and 7 yellow balls. Two balls are drawn
at random from the urn. Determine the probability for each of the
following:
(a) two white balls without replacement. (1/15)
For the rst pick we have probability of 3/10 and for the second
pick we have one less white ball, 2/9. The probability for selecting
both balls is 3/10 2/9.
Or we can view this as choosing 2 white balls out of 3 divided by
the number of ways to choose 2 balls from 10,

3
2

10
2
.
(b) one of each color without replacement. (7/15)
Suppose we pick a white ball then a yellow ball, the probability
of this occurring is 3/10 7/9. The next case would be picking a
1
yellow ball followed by picking a white ball, the probability of this
event is 7/103/9. The probability of these two mutual exclusive
events is 3/10 7/9 + 7/10 3/9 = 2(7/10 3/9).
(c) two yellow balls with replacement. (.49)
The probability of picking a yellow ball is 7/10. The probability
of picking a yellow ball on the second time is also 7/10. Thus the
probability of picking two balls with replacements is 7/10 7/10.
3. An urn contains 4 red and 6 green balls. Two balls are drawn at random
without replacement. What is the probability that the two selected are
of dierent colors? (8/15)
This problem is the same as 2 (b).
4. Urn A contains 4 white and 3 red marbles, urn B contains 2 white
and 5 red marbles, and urn C contains 2 white and 6 red marbles. A
marble is to be selected from each one of the three urns. What is the
probability that the three selected are of the same color? (53/196)
The probability of picking a white ball from the urn A is 4/7, from the
urn B is 2/7 and from urn C is 2/8. The probability of picking a white
ball from all three is 4/7 2/7 2/8.
The probability of picking a red ball from the urn A is 3/7, from the
urn B is 5/7 and from urn C is 6/8. The probability of picking a white
ball from all three is 3/7 5/7 6/8.
The two events are mutually exclusive, so the probablility of picking
all white balls or all red balls is 4/7 2/7 2/8 + 3/7 5/7 6/8.
5. An urn contains 7 red balls and 4 yellow balls.
(a) Suppose you pick two balls. What is the probability of picking
only 1 yellow ball without replacement?
There are two samples that have only one yellow ball, the sum of
their probabilities is 2 7/11 4/10.
2
Urn
7R, 4Y
Urn
7R, 3Y
P({Y, Y }) =
4
11

3
10
Y
3
1
0
P({Y, R}) =
4
11

7
10 R
7
1
0
Y
4
1
1
Urn
6R, 4Y
P({R, Y }) =
7
11

4
10
Y
4
1
0
P({R, R}) =
7
11

6
10 R
6
1
0
R
7
1
1
(b) Suppose you pick two balls. What is the probability of picking
only 1 yellow ball with replacement?
There are two samples that have only one yellow ball, the sum of
their probabilities is 2 7/11 4/11.
Urn
7R, 4Y
Urn
7R, 4Y
P({Y, Y }) =
4
11

4
11
Y
4
1
1
P({Y, R}) =
4
11

7
11 R
7
1
1
Y
4
1
1
Urn
7R, 4Y
P({R, Y }) =
7
11

4
11
Y
4
1
1
P({R, R}) =
7
11

7
11 R
7
1
1
R
7
1
1
(c) Suppose you pick 3 balls. What is the probability of picking only
1 yellow ball without replacement?
There are three possible outcomes that are included in the event.
We could rst pick a yellow ball and then two red balls with prob-
ability 4/11 7/10 7/9.
We could also rst pick a red ball, then a yellow followed by a red
ball. The probability of this outcome is 7/11 4/10 6/9.
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Finally we could rst pick two red balls and then a yellow ball
with probability 7/11 6/10 4/9. The probability of either of
the three outcomes occurring is therefore 3(7/11 6/10 4/9).
(d) Suppose you pick 3 balls. What is the probability of picking only
1 yellow ball with replacement?
There are three possible outcomes that are included in the event.
We could rst pick a yellow ball and then two red balls with prob-
ability 4/11 7/11 7/11.
We could also rst pick a red ball, then a yellow followed by a red
ball. The probability of this outcome is 7/11 4/11 7/11.
Finally we could rst pick two red balls and then a yellow ball
with probability 7/11 7/11 4/11. The probability of either of
the three outcomes occurring is therefore 3(7/11 7/11 4/11).
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