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Second blue draw from a randomly chosen bowl

Question

There are three bowls: one holds two blue balls, one holds two red balls, and one holds one ball of each colour. You choose a bowl uniformly at random and draw a ball, which turns out to be blue. You put it back and draw again from that same bowl. What is the probability that the second ball is also blue?

Short answer

56\tfrac56. The first draw is blue with probability 13(1+12+0)=12\tfrac13(1+\tfrac12+0)=\tfrac12, and two blues (with replacement) occur with probability 13(1+14+0)=512\tfrac13(1+\tfrac14+0)=\tfrac{5}{12}. Dividing gives 5/121/2=56\tfrac{5/12}{1/2}=\tfrac56; the blue draw tilts you towards the all-blue bowl.

Adapted from QuantQuestions.io; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.

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