Probability Question 1

Question 1 - 2024 (01 Feb Shift 1)

A bag contains 8 balls, whose colours are either white or black. 4 balls are drawn at random without replacement and it was found that 2 balls are white and other 2 balls are black. The probability that the bag contains equal number of white and black balls is:

(1) $\frac{2}{5}$

(2) $\frac{2}{7}$

(3) $\frac{1}{7}$

(4) $\frac{1}{5}$

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Answer (2)

Solution

$P(4 W 4 B / 2 W 2 B)=$

$P(4 W 4 B) \times P(2 W 2 B / 4 W 4 B)$

$\overline{P(2 W 6 B) \times P(2 W 2 B / 2 W 6 B)+P(3 W 5 B) \times P(2 W 2 B / 3 W 5 B)}$

$+\ldots \ldots \ldots+P(6 W 2 B) \times P(2 W 2 B / 6 W 2 B)$

$=\frac{\frac{1}{5} \times \frac{{ }^{4} C _2 \times{ }^{4} C _2}{{ }^{8} C _4}}{\frac{1}{5} \times \frac{{ }^{2} C _2 \times{ }^{6} C _2}{{ }^{8} C _4}+\frac{1}{5} \times \frac{{ }^{3} C _2 \times{ }^{5} C _2}{{ }^{8} C _4}+\ldots+\frac{1}{5} \times \frac{{ }^{6} C _2 \times{ }^{2} C _2}{{ }^{8} C _4}}$

$=\frac{2}{7}$