Skip to content

Urn where black balls get swapped for red

Question

An urn starts with rr red and bb black balls (r,b>0r,b>0). Repeatedly, a ball is drawn at random: a red ball is put back, while a black ball is removed and a red ball is put in its place, so the total stays r+br+b. Let f(r,b,n)f(r,b,n) be the probability that draw number nn is red. Compute f(8,12,11)f(8,12,11) to two decimal places.

Short answer

About 0.640.64. Each draw removes a black ball with probability (blacks)/(total), so the expected number of black balls shrinks by the factor 1−1r+b1-\tfrac{1}{r+b} per draw. Hence f=1−br+b(1−1r+b)n−1=1−0.6 (0.95)10≈0.641f=1-\tfrac{b}{r+b}\left(1-\tfrac1{r+b}\right)^{n-1}=1-0.6\,(0.95)^{10}\approx0.641.

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

See the hint and the full worked solution in the question bank (free account).

Open the worked solution

Lessons behind this question

Start with a free lesson: Expectation, Variance and Covariance is part of a free topic. Create a free account, no card needed, to read it in full with worked solutions.

Read it free