What is the number of blue balls in the second urn?

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The problem involves calculating the number of blue balls in a second urn based on the probability of drawing two balls of the same color. The first urn contains 4 red and 6 blue balls, while the second urn has 16 red balls and an unknown number of blue balls, denoted as x. The equation derived from the probability condition is (4/10)(16/(16+x)) + (6/10)(x/(16+x)) = 0.44. Solving this equation reveals that the number of blue balls in the second urn is 4.

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Question:
An urn contains 10 balls: 4 red and 6 blue. A second urn contains 16 red balls and an unknown number of blue balls. A single ball is drawn from each urn. The probability that both balls are the same color is .44. Calculate the number of blue balls in the second urn.

My attempt
I don't know the best notation to use for this situation. I am going to try [math]P(R_1)[/math] as the probability of drawing a red ball from the first urn. So we have [math]P(R_1)=.4 \text{ and } P(B_1)=.6[/math]. To express the probability of both balls being a single color it seems there are two cases to consider which we should add: [math]P(R_1 \cap R_2)+P(B_1 \cap B_2)[/math]. Am I correct in thinking that for mutually exclusive events that's the same as [math]P(R_1 \cdot R_2)+P(B_1 \cdot B_2)[/math]?

I know the basic ways to manipulate these using DeMorgan's Laws but I'm missing the first step or have set up the problem entirely incorrectly. I have the solution key but I don't want the full solution yet.
 
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Houdini said:
Question:
An urn contains 10 balls: 4 red and 6 blue. A second urn contains 16 red balls and an unknown number of blue balls. A single ball is drawn from each urn. The probability that both balls are the same color is .44. Calculate the number of blue balls in the second urn.
I would solve the following:
\frac{4}{10}\frac{16}{16+x}+\frac{6}{10}\frac{x}{16+x}=\frac{44}{100}.
 
Makes perfect sense. I've been trying to use all of these set rules that I missed it. So x=4 and plugging that in confirms.
 

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