A bag contains 5 white balls and 4 red balls. If two balls are drawn randomly, what is the probability that the selected balls are of different colors?

Explanation

There are a total of 9 balls, and the number of ways to choose any 2 balls is 9 choose 2 = 36. To have balls of different colors, one must be white and the other red. The number of ways to select one white ball is 5 choose 1 = 5, and one red ball is 4 choose 1 = 4. Therefore, the total favorable outcomes are 5 × 4 = 20. Hence, the probability is 20/36, which simplifies to 5/9.