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!

Sean Connery's Apples

My wife and I went by car to see the movie Robin and Marian. The movie uses an artistic framing device of 3 apples. At the start of the movie 3 ripe apples are shown on a window ledge. At the end of the movie the apples are shown again. 2 - representing the deaths of Robin and Marian are rotted. We drove back from the movie and parked on the street at the first available spot close to our apartment. The car parked behind us had 3 apples on the dashboard.

Strange Sighting

My wife purchased a new hair product called "Rock On". I saw it on the counter the day after she got it and the song from T.Rex played in my brain. That same day, while out on lunch, a car with the license plate "Rock On" was in front of me.

dollar bill

As I was out walking, listening to my ipod,a Black Eyed Peas song came on. At the exact moment a "dollar bill" was mentioned in the lyrics - I stepped on a dollar bill on the sidewalk!

Geraldine McEwan's Death

Have just returned from a holiday in New Zealand. We stopped at a small town called .Geraldine in Canturbury and discussed how the name Geraldine has fallen out of fashion. The only Geraldine we could think of was Geraldine McEwan. Got back to Christchurch later that day, went onto BBC news website and read that Geraldine McEwan had just died. Make of that what you will.

Lives going strangely parallel

I am from Munich, Germany, and made a friend when I was 24, only to notice that we had the exact same birthday. So far so good, I received a notice that I could spend my exchange semester in Stockholm in 2008 and by sheer coincidence, he had been in the same town, in the same hostel, in the same room just a year before for an exchangesemester. To top it all, I met a girlin London (she also was from Munich), that I was dating for some weeks. It was a big hello when we found out that she was my friend's ex girlfriend!

Death on a mountain

My husband was on the way down Mount Kinabalu in Borneo when he collapsed and died. Some climbers had passed a few minutes before but heard the commotion and came back.an Australian couple were life savers and tried resuscitation.with them was another English couple who were on a gap year. A few days later they English couple sent an email to my husbands niece saying there had been up Mount Kinabalu but on the way up they had this experience and gave his name. Imagine how comforted the family felt knowing there was someone they knew with their brother/nieces and nephews. Only months before the couple were at the wedding of my husband's niece. We were all in a photo together.

Death on a mountain

My husband was on the way down Mount Kinabalu in Borneo when he collapsed and died. Some climbers had passed a few minutes before but heard the commotion and came back.an Australian couple were life savers and tried resuscitation.with them was another English couple who were on a gap year. A few days later they English couple sent an email to my husbands niece saying there had been up Mount Kinabalu but on the way up they had this experience and gave his name. Imagine how comforted the family felt knowing there was someone they knew with their brother/nieces and nephews. Only months before the couple were at the wedding of my husband's niece. We were all in a photo together.

Neighbours of childhood neighbours

Years ago my husband and we're having a holiday in India part of which was three days on a rice boat on the backwaters in Kerela. We were to share the boat with another couple. There were several couples due to share with strangers. On the way there we exchanged details about ourselves as one does. One couple came from near my childhood home. The amazing coincidence was that their next door neighbour was my child hood neighbour before I was 9. More weird was we may not have met him because he broke his leg the day before flying to India.<br /> Had we not spoken to this couple we would never have known who they were. Arriving at our destination we asked if we could share the boat with them. We had so much more in common.<br /> Some years later I stayed with the couple and I was able to meet my childhood friend exchanging photographs.<br /> My family moved away to another town were strangely this friend's wife came from and she knew my school friends.<br />

Devils Number Plate

I was round a friends house and we were looking for cars in Autotrader in 1987, (pre internet days) soon we got on to looking for personal number plates, I jokingly said I would like to get the number plate LJH 666 to match my initials + the number of the beast, on the way home I had a Triumph 2000 pull out in front of me - Its number plate was LJH 666L

Eerie 13th Birthday Coincidence

Soo I have a some what curious and eerie coincidence with my family. In particular with my immediate relatives. My fathers birthday is Feb 13th('68), my mothers is Apr 13th('65), mine is Dec 13th('89) and lastly my brother who is May 31st('99). So all very similar, but then my brother is the backwards one. What are the odds? *Years not really relevant per say, but are there for perspective. Also, if there's any astrological significance it would be entertaining. ~andrew.pease89@gmail.com

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