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There are three urns containing 2 white and 3 black balls, 3 white and 2 black balls, and 4 white and 1 black balls, respectively. There is an equal probability of each urn being chosen. A ball is drawn at random from the chosen urn and it is found to be white. Find the probability that the ball drawn was from the second urn.

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Solution

Given-

There are 3 urns U1, U2 and U3

Let U1 be 2 white and 3 black balls

U2 be 3 white and 2 black balls
U3 be 4 white and 1 black balls
Therefore, Total balls = 5

As there is an equal probability of each urn being chosen

\therefore \mathrm{P}\left(\mathrm{U}_{1}\right)=\mathrm{P}\left(\mathrm{U}_{2}\right)=\mathrm{P}\left(\mathrm{U}_{3}\right)=\frac{1}{3}
Let E_{1}, E_{2}$ and $E_{3} be the event that a ball is chosen from an urn U_{1}, \\\mathrm{U}_{2}$ and $\mathrm{U}_{3}  respectively.
\\\therefore P\left(E_{1}\right)=P\left(E_{2}\right)=P\left(E_{3}\right)=\frac{1}{3}

Let A be the event that the white ball is drawn.
P(A|E1) is the probability that the white ball is chosen from urn U1
P(A|E2) is the probability that the white ball is chosen from urn U2
P(A|E3) is the probability that the white ball is chosen from urn U3

\therefore P\left(A \mid E_{1}\right)=\frac{2}{5}, P\left(A \mid E_{2}\right)=\frac{3}{5} and P\left(A \mid E_{3}\right)=\frac{4}{5}

To find- the probability that the ball is drawn was from \mathrm{U}_{2}.
Using Bayes' theorem to find the probability of occurrence of an event A when event B has already occurred.
\underset{\therefore}{\mathbf{P}}(\mathbf{A} \mid \mathbf{B})=\frac{P(A) P(B \mid A)}{P(B)}

\\ \mathrm{P}\left(\mathrm{E}_{2} \mid \mathrm{A}\right)$ is the probability that white ball is selected from urn $\mathrm{U}_{2}

\\ P\left(E_{2} \mid A\right)=\frac{P\left(E_{2}\right) \times P\left(A \mid E_{2}\right)}{P\left(E_{1}\right) \times P\left(A \mid E_{1}\right)+P\left(E_{2}\right) \times P\left(A \mid E_{2}\right)+P\left(E_{3}\right) \times P\left(A \mid E_{3}\right)} \\ =\frac{\frac{1}{3} \times \frac{3}{5}}{\frac{1}{3} \times \frac{2}{5}+\frac{1}{3} \times \frac{3}{5}+\frac{1}{3} \times \frac{4}{5}} \\ =\frac{\frac{1}{5}}{\frac{2}{15}+\frac{3}{15}+\frac{4}{15}} \\ =\frac{\frac{1}{5}}{\frac{9}{15}} \\ =\frac{1}{3}

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