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The rule of product says that a sequence of $k$ choices, with $n_i$ possibilities at stage $i$ regardless of earlier choices, has ${\prod }_{i=1}^k{n}_i$ possible outcomes. Applied to the Cartesian product of finite sets, it gives $|A\times B|=|A||B|$. Here independence means that the available choices do not restrict one another; no probability assumption is needed.

Write $p_n=(1-1/n{)}^n$, the probability that all balls avoid a specified box. Each of the empty-box indicators in uniform allocation is an indicator random variable with success probability $p_n$. Since $I_i^2=I_i$, its expectation and variance are

For both boxes to be empty, each ball must avoid two specified boxes. The individual avoidance probability is $(n-2)/n$, and the choices of different balls are independent. ThereforeThis also covers $n=2$, when the answer is zero.

In the uniform balls-in-bins allocation, each ball enters box 1 independently with probability $1/n$. Thus $M_1$ has the binomial distribution $\mathrm{Bin}(n,1/n)$, with probability mass functionand zero outside that range.