Cambridge Coincidences Collection

As of the 23rd May 2022 this website is archived and will receive no further updates.

understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

Many of the animations were produced using Flash and will no longer work.

Well I Never!

Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University wants to know about your coincidences!

Hey, you're Drew!

In 1978 I was a nineteen year old on a solo trip to England from my home in Marin County, California. I was studying acting, and went to England to see some theatre and visit Shakespeare's birthplace. I was walking in the West End of London, with time to kill, and on impulse I bought a ticket for a play I had not planned on seeing. When the first act ended and the house lights came on, I was startled to hear someone behind me say my name. I turned around and sitting directly behind me was a high school classmate of mine from Mill Valley, California. He too was in London on his own, and had bought his ticket as a walk-up, on impulse. He was not a "drama kid," nor was he even a frequent theatre goer. Yet there we were, thousands of miles from home, sitting two feet from each other in a London theatre.

Chance meeting

As I did 2 or 3 times a month I went to the park (4 miles away) at 10AM to watch the dogs training at agility (running courses with hurdles, tunnels, etc). I do not have a dog. As I approached the training area a dog, who I had never seen before, dropped its toy ball and it rolled my way. I picked it up and gave it back. Its owner, a blonde lady, approached me and retrieved her dog. She asked me if I had a dog. I said no. I introduced myself and she then "told me her first name". It was a slightly unusual name. My brain then clicked her name with having a dog. I had that morning at 8AM been matched with her on Great Expectations, which I had only joined three days earlier. I had not read her profile yet. I had merely scanned the page and had only seen the first name (that is all they give) and that she liked dogs and riding horses. I must of spooked her when I started putting 1 and 1 together in front of her. She must of thought I was a stalker. We never did go on a date. I contacted Great Expectations and they said that (as far as they know) no one has ever met their match accidentally.

A bizzare coincidence

On 11/09/2016 I searched for my brother who I hadn't seen in over 20 years I googled his full name and found a ABN number for a pest control business. I rang the number to find out it was my brother and I was over joyed at finding him and asking to leave the communication door open. Tuesday night the 13th of September I found out that my brother-in-law who is also in pest control died on 11th of September from a fall at work. I find this a bizzare coincidence.

A special message from my Father?

About 6 months before my Dad passed away, he was talking to my daughter on the hands free phone in my car. My daughter and Dad were saying how much they loved each other. Grandpa I love you a hundred: Katie I love you a million, then a trillion and so on back and forth. At one point my daughter couldn't think of a number so as we passed the gas station she read out the gas price which was 84.9- she said I love you 84.9 Grandpa! It stuck between them as a special way of saying how much they loved each other. They would say it when they would say goodbye on the phone every time. My Dad was 83 when he died and he never forgot that special number.<br /> My daughters birthday was about 3 weeks after my Dad passed away. I drive by that gas station 2x a day on my way to work and back. The day before her birthday the fuel price had been coming down. On the morning of her birthday as I drove to work the price of gas was 84.9 and I stopped to take a picture. On the way home it was still 84.9. The nect morning it was back up again. Its been 5 months since my Dad died and the price of fuel at that station has never been 84.9 again.

Just saying someone's name...

I was talking to a colleague in the office one morning about the Scotland national football team. He is a good few years younger than me and, at the time, had seen some pretty decent performances over the years. I was telling him about some I had seen from further back, some terrible games. I got round to telling him about one game against San Marino, a team of part time players. A dreadful match that stood out for one event; the Scotland midfielder John Collins, a truly world class player, picked the ball up almost in his own penalty area, ran the length of the pitch with the ball and scored having taken the ball passed a number of opposition players. We tried to see if there were any video clips of the goal online but never found any. That evening, on my way home I stopped off at the recently opened takeway in our village. I was standing at the counter about to pick up my order when someone came in through the door. I turned to look...and it was the man himself... John Collins!

Jewish people who lived in Bolivia find each other in Wisconsin

After she retired from schoolteaching in North Dakota, my paternal grandmother Enid spent two years living in Cochabamba. She did this with the help of my mother's family who all live there. She had a good relationship with them. </p> <p>After returning from Bolivia, Grandma Enid moved to my hometown of Green Bay, WI, to be nearer to her son, my father, in the final part of her life. </p> <p>Eventually, Grandma Enid's declining health caused her to enter an assisted living facility. There were only two other Jewish people in her entire building. They turned out to be German expatriate married couple surnamed Pick. They survived the Holocaust. </p> <p>It just so happened, though, that this couple had come to Green Bay, via Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Unhappy coincidences

I had worked in the mining industry for about two years before deciding to study for a chemistry degree. On graduating, I got temporary work with a former employer. This was supposed to be for six months but it lasted longer. Realising it would not be permanent, I applied for another position with a mining company and was interviewed by a man I will call Mr. Bennett. He told me I was overqualified for that particular position but believed there would be an opening in a month or so. Several weeks later I arrived home one Friday evening to find a message to call Mr. Bennett on Monday. During the weekend there was a cloudburst near the mine and a man had been drowned when his vehicle was swept off a causeway. His name was not mentioned on the news. You can probably guess the rest of the story. I phoned the mine on the Monday morning and asked for Mr. Bennett. "Do you think this is some kind of joke?" was the angry answer. "What? No!". I explained the situation and was told that he had been drowned on the Saturday.

Chance meetings - 2 types

I run a BnB in Brittany, France. Here are just two of many events that have occurred in recent years that I can only describe as amazing coincidences: 1)totally separate bookings from 2 Italian families, for the same dates. They arrive within minutes of each other...and the guys throw their arms around each other in amazement: a surgeon and an anaesthetist who used to work together. 2)new clients arrive from Lille, some 600 km away. On the way here they stopped at a services to eat and got talking to another couple - who had just been staying at my next-door neighbour's and were on their way home.

Another eerie coincidence

My brother went to Cornell University and lived for awhile in his fraternity house Tau Delta Phi. Unfortunately, my brother died young in 1968. My son decided to attend Cornell University and lived for awhile at his fraternity house Theta Chi. When I went to visit my son, I thought the house he was living in looked so familiar. As it turned out, it was the same house my brother lived in 40 years before. There are 34 fraternities at Cornell University.

Eeerie Coincidence

I was visiting my son's family in Massachusetts and presented my daughter-in-law with a string of pearls that belonged to my mom. My daughter-in-law never met my mom. I proceeded to tell her about my mom saying that to fully appreciate how wonderful my mom was you have to hear just one story. When I was 22 and going skiing the next day and had no hat she ran to a store to find wool that matched my ski sweater and then stayed up all night knitting me a hat. My husband and myself left a bit later to head back to our home in New York which is about a 2 hour drive. On the way I received an email from an old guy friend whom I had reconnected with about a year before simply saying that he had just come across this picture of me and thought I'd like to see it. It was a picture of me 46 years ago in ski clothes holding that hat my mother made!

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