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Miscellaneous Examples · Example 22
Q.

Coloured balls are distributed in four boxes as shown in the following table:

BoxBlackWhiteRedBlue
I3456
II2222
III1231
IV4315

A box is selected at random and then a ball is randomly drawn from the selected box. The colour of the ball is black, what is the probability that ball drawn is from the box III?

Telangana TsbieTextbookSubjective· 3mImportance★★★★★
43% · 71/165 Questions
✓ Free question

By Bayes' theorem, given the drawn ball is black, P(Box III)=156947P(\text{Box III}) = \dfrac{156}{947}.

Let B1,B2,B3,B4B_1,B_2,B_3,B_4 be the events of selecting boxes I–IV, and KK the event of drawing a black ball. A box is chosen at random, so P(Bi)=14P(B_i)=\tfrac14.

Black-ball probability in each box:

  • Box I: 3+4+5+6=183+4+5+6=18 balls, 33 black ⇒P(K∣B1)=318=16\Rightarrow P(K\mid B_1)=\tfrac{3}{18}=\tfrac16
  • Box II: 2+2+2+2=82+2+2+2=8 balls, 22 black ⇒P(K∣B2)=28=14\Rightarrow P(K\mid B_2)=\tfrac{2}{8}=\tfrac14
  • Box III: 1+2+3+1=71+2+3+1=7 balls, 11 black ⇒P(K∣B3)=17\Rightarrow P(K\mid B_3)=\tfrac17
  • Box IV: 4+3+1+5=134+3+1+5=13 balls, 44 black ⇒P(K∣B4)=413\Rightarrow P(K\mid B_4)=\tfrac{4}{13}

Total probability of a black ball:

P(K)=14(16+14+17+413)=14⋅9471092=9474368.P(K)=\tfrac14\left(\tfrac16+\tfrac14+\tfrac17+\tfrac{4}{13}\right)=\tfrac14\cdot\tfrac{947}{1092}=\tfrac{947}{4368}.

Bayes' theorem:

P(B3∣K)=P(K∣B3) P(B3)P(K)=17⋅149474368=10927⋅947=156947.P(B_3\mid K)=\frac{P(K\mid B_3)\,P(B_3)}{P(K)}=\frac{\tfrac17\cdot\tfrac14}{\tfrac{947}{4368}}=\frac{1092}{7\cdot 947}=\frac{156}{947}.

✓Final answer

The probability that the black ball was drawn from Box III is 156947\dfrac{156}{947}.

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