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!

Meeting David Spiegelhalter

At lunch with two colleagues, we were talking about the need to communicate statistics clearly to the general public, and of the good work that David Spiegelhalter has done on this. My younger colleague was getting quite excited and, even as we left the restaurant, kept singing the praises of the great man. About half way to our being back in the office, who did we chance upon? David Spiegelhalter of course. (Spoiling the magic: DS was in a meeting at the RSS, which is around the corner from us, so this was not quite an unexpected meeting place. Also, my colleagues and I, while all into statistics, do not have common research interests; so a general topic of conversation, such as stats communications, was always likely.)

The early bird gets voting

I went to vote in California's primary on Tuesday at my local precinct. There are about 1500 people registered to vote in each precinct. There were 2 precincts in the room where I voted. The polls were open from 7 am to 8 pm. I arrived around 7:15. Shortly after I arrived, 2 other women arrived. All three of us were voting in the same precinct and all had the first name of Robin (and all spelled "robin" the same way (not robyn or robbin)!! What is the probability that this could happen? (I do not know if we all voted the same way.)

An expressive drawing

An expressive drawing I often make drawings. The other day I showed one of them to a jovial, friendly elderly lady. It is said to be "very expressive" and depicts a thin, bald, rigorous, bitter (?) man with a judgemental look. While she was watching and commenting it carefully (especially on the scrutinizing, judgemental expression of his face ) blood started flowing from her nose. "Does this often happen ?" - I asked. "Practically speaking, never. " - she replied.

link between unrelated "narratives"; a stranger no stranger.

I am the proprietor of Independent Bookshop, Scarthin Books, in Cromford, Derbyshire. From the shop counter one can clearly see the front door, but a part of the shop straight ahead is obscured by bookshelves. Some years ago, a mature lady unknown to me entered and began speaking in baby talk to a toddler hidden behind the shelves. I decided to make a joke out of the apparent absence of any other recipient of her bay talk and said to her "Ahhh, no-one's spoken to me like that in 40 years". She replied, "Oh, but I have spoken to you like that...I used to wait with your mother outside Station Road Infants' School in Conisborough, for my daughter and for you....you must have been five." Conisborough is in South Yorkshire, my family left there in 1950 and I was largely brought up in Northamptonshire, before University in Cambridge and Birmingham and my first "job" which by a long chance was in nearby Matlock.

Same password

I logged into my computer one morning and was surprised to discover a completely different desktop. On investigation I found that I was not logged in as myself, but as one of my colleagues, so it was his desktop I was seeing. How could that happen? He'd used my computer the night before, and when I logged in I just typed my password without looking at the user name it was offering me. And I got in because we both had the same password (for no reason of any connection between us). So when he arrived at work I was able to surprise him with "I know your password".

Gas station encounter

This coincidence needs a bit of back story to understand the impact I felt from it. I headed out relatively late one evening to go to the grocery store. The drive to the store from my house basically involves driving south down one road - it's very simple and straightforward, and takes at most 5 minutes (when there's traffic). When I pulled out of the driveway, I noticed that the car was very low on gas. Because my wife was going to take our kids out somewhere the following day, I stopped at a gas station that's not too far from the house to fill up the tank. First, I prepaid at the pump. Then while I was pumping gas, I browsed Facebook on my phone. One story that I read particularly captivated my interest. It had been posted by to an old friend, located quite some distance away, who'd earlier that day watched the police from one jurisdiction in her area carry out a traffic stop in another area, and she had expressed surprise at it happening (e.g.

Mrs M. W.

our first grandson was born on my 41st birthday July 1997 our forth grandson was born on our 41st wedding anniversary Aug 2015

Finding a t-shirt (yours) in a faraway land

I heard this coincidence story third-hand, from a professor teaching an undergraduate-level conservation course. She was lecturing about Tambopata, Peru, and went on a tangent about a former student who had been studying (or perhaps doing fieldwork) there. The student was at a market that sold used clothing, and while sifting through the piles of clothes, happened to find a t-shirt emblazoned with the logo of his youth sports team with his name and number on the back. The amazing thing was, he had been under the impression that he still owned the shirt, and that it was in his dresser drawer back home. His mom had apparently donated it to Goodwill (or something similar) while he was away, and it had made its way to this foreign country. I always wondered if the student purchased the shirt and brought it back home with him.

A tale of two Elliots

A few years ago, I was dating someone named Elliot Hughes. We had been together for about two years, and I was planning to move to another state to live with him after a four-month internship (for which I had to live on-site). The internship was in an isolated area, with only a few other people my age living there, and I kept to myself throughout the first three months. Eventually, with just a few weeks left in my internship, a young man struck up a conversation with me. He said his name was Tote. Another week passed, and he invited me and another young woman to play board games. I noticed he had stuck a label on the game's box with his name: Elliot Hughes. Tote, I found out, was just a nickname. For me, the coincidence of the names wasn't as poignant as the regret I felt for not reaching out to these potential friends sooner.

Getting a funny feeling that someone we hardly knew a decade ago had died

In 1994 my husband was thumped by a man in London: the man had road rage, he had gone completely berserk after a minor car accident involving my husband. We had not known or heard of this man before the incident, he was a complete stranger. We later found out his name from the police who investigated the incident. The man was in his 20s, very young. We had no further contact with him of any kind after the incident, we did not know anyone who knew him or had any knowledge of him.<br /> My husband was injured in the incident, and his back has not been right since, so you can imagine there was some resentment against the man.<br /> By 2005 we had moved miles away from London in a new town. We were getting ready to go out to an event and my husband and I talked briefly about the incident in 1994, his back was quite , and as we talked I suddenly felt the man who had assaulted my husband so long ago was now dead. And I told my husband so.

Pages