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!

different people same birthday

I was in a relationship with someone who I let abuse me (I could have made better choices to avoid that situation) when I was on a working holiday visa is Australia from 2012-2013. Recently, this past fall I met someone who has the same birthday as the other person. How can two people who share the same birthday be so different in terms of who they are?

Holiday in Kos

Hi, My name is Jo & a few years ago I took my daughter Charlotte to Kos for a two week vacation, leaving my son (Rhys) at home due to work commitments. The day we arrived at the hotel we went to the pool & claimed two sun beds, a couple (Chris & Chris) & their daughter Ashley (who was the same age as my daughter Charlotte) took the following three sun beds next to us & we started chatting & it became apparent that we were all there for the same two weeks & that they had also left their son (Adrian) behind due to work commitments. We spent the whole two weeks together and on our last day we exchanged addresses, which turned out to be the same address (in different towns - we lived in Bedford & they came from Newcastle). We have kept in touch ever since I.e. letters at Christmas time & adhoc in between. I received a letter enclosed in a Christmas card back in December 2015 which gave me an update that they became grandparents in March 2015 (their son Adrians wife) which was again so weird as I also became a grandparent in March 2015 (my sons Rhys's partner), coincidence or not both babies were boys.

siblings..

my father in-laws 2 siblings who died on same date with his but different month and year

Meetings friends in unusual place!

I met two girls on holiday in the Balkans on a bus tour in July 2012. One was English (Layla, from London) and the other was an Australian (Jackie, from Melbourne). The Aussie was planning on moving to the UK. I should add I'm from Glasgow and am a schoolteacher. Anyway, in November 2013 I was asked at the last minute to join a school trip to Edinburgh Zoo (the only time I have ever been to that zoo and 50 miles from my school) At one point, at the meerkat enclosure (the zoo is fairly big) I was "attacked" by two people. Of course it was only a bit of fun and to my amazement, yet you guessed it, it was the two girls, Layla & Jackie. It was the only time they have ever been to Edinburgh Zoo also, and around 400 miles from London. It turns out after the holiday the girls kept in touch and Layla (London) got Jackie a job working for Sky TV. The trip to Edinburgh Zoo was part of a team building exercise for new and existing staff. Anyway, I'd like to know the odds of that happening since it is without doubt the largest coincidence I can recall!

Chance meetings

I have two stories: No. 1: In the Summer of 1982 I travelled to Montepulciano in Italy by train to play in a music festival leaving my girlfriend in London. The journey was scheduled to last a couple of days. The day after I left my girlfriend met three string players who planned to go to Italy to busk as a string quartet (she was a violin player); and they invited her to join them. They left the next day and planned to start in Rome. During the string quartet's train journey (not in Italy) they were joined in their railway carriage by a women and they quickly realized they were all English and musicians. She was also travelling to the same music festival I was playing in. My girlfriend asked her to see if she could find me when she arrived there to pass on a message that she was in Italy and planned to come to Montepulciano. The day after I arrived in Montepulchiano I was at a place where all festival participants gathered (probably about 300 to 400). The girl who had met my girlfriend arrived from the train station and came directly to the gathering place and immediately approached me to see if I knew the recipient of her message (me!).

New Year perceptual thinking

Scrolling in my sms inbox on 31st December, I wondered why had I received a happy new year message so much down the timeline to which I hadn't even replied. Only to find out that it was an old message from my friend that said "Happy to Hear"

what can happen to a girl in her hometown

Native born Ohio in 1958 6th January Grace a green school Dayton Ohio Falling search Of my mother's gardens Found my father's well

Close to Death

So my story begins this way, i was working last year for a major Voip Service Provider, Telephone company in the USA, Outsourcing in Mexico, i'm giving you this details so you can relate and have a plot to all of this, story begins me obviously being hired Oct 14 2015, started having problems with my Supervisor coming in to the 9th of month of being hired, she just did not like me appareantely, i was there everyday,did my tasks on a daily basis,so i could not be fired for just her pleasure, we are protected here in Mexico by law, i am saying this so that you can get a big picture of things, i was dating my girlfriend at the time, still together, we did not find out she was pregnant until one day she started having pains so i took hr to the ER i was fired the day beofore and i was given a check for 43.655, somwhere arround 3,000 dollars for unjustifingly firing for no reason, the reason with the judge after showing up to court was that no joke unjustified, so wrote me a check before the day that anything happened, before the end of the month 9 i was fired, too much coincidence month 9 of work, 9 months of pregnancy, 3,000 dllls i paid in hospital bills, and in mexico if you do

House, Name, and Birthday Coincidence

Our neighbor who lives across the road from us in our cul-de-sac lives in the same house design as ours (the only two in the cul-de-sac of twelve houses with the same design), he also has the same name as me, Stephen, and also has the same birth date as me (3rd July 1949).

Cross continental meeting

In 1990, I was going through Maputo airport in Mocambique, on my way for 6 weeks leave, when I got into a brief conversation with a man behind me in the queue at security. We had never met before. 3 weeks later, I was entering Woolworths in Warminster, Wiltshire, (the only time I did during this leave period) and stood aside to allow someone to exit the door of the shop. We both did a double take and realized we had met before, briefly, as above. It turned out he was travelling from his home in Wales to the south coast and had diverted from his direct route to buy sweets for his kids. If either of us had arrived/left the shop 5 seconds earlier/later, we would not have met in the doorway. What're the chances of that then?! Cheers Martin

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