A box contains 12 red and 8 blue balls. Two balls are drawn randomly from the box without replacement. The probability of drawing a pair of balls having the same color is ________
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To find the probability of drawing two balls of the same color, calculate the favorable outcomes for each color and divide by the total possible outcomes.
Step 1: Total number of balls.
The total number of balls in the box is:
\[
12 + 8 = 20 { balls}.
\]
The total number of ways to draw two balls from 20 is given by:
\[
\binom{20}{2} = \frac{20 \times 19}{2} = 190.
\]
Step 2: Number of favorable outcomes for drawing two red balls.
The number of ways to choose 2 red balls from 12 is:
\[
\binom{12}{2} = \frac{12 \times 11}{2} = 66.
\]
Step 3: Number of favorable outcomes for drawing two blue balls.
The number of ways to choose 2 blue balls from 8 is:
\[
\binom{8}{2} = \frac{8 \times 7}{2} = 28.
\]
Step 4: Total number of favorable outcomes.
The total number of favorable outcomes is:
\[
66 + 28 = 94.
\]
Step 5: Calculating the probability.
Thus, the probability of drawing two balls of the same color is:
\[
P({same color}) = \frac{94}{190} = 0.4947.
\]
So, the probability, rounded off to three decimal places, is:
\[
\boxed{0.495}.
\]