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.

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Well I Never!

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

Odd coincidences in Family

My paternal parents were married on June 26,1960, I was born on June 26,1962, my sister was born on June 26, 1964. My son was born on June 3rd, 1986, my sisters son was born on June 3rd, 1987. Can you calculate the odds of such occurrences? Regards, C. Matthew

Surprising repetition

I am 20 years old. When i was 18 i saw one guy in the city centre ( who is musician ). I know him virtually, (he enrolled youth movement which my exboyfriend also did. And my ex sometimes speaks about him or their band, there are 2 guys, and they have some videos on YouTube ), i mean we don't have relationship. After that in 2o14 when i was 19 i had another boyfriend, and i forget thinking about him ( who i saw in 2013 ) one day i met my group mates for educational purpose, and we walked and talked about something and then i saw same person in there, he looked at me. And i also. But i had a boyfriend, that's why i didn't return to back to know he also did or not. Then in the same year ( 2014 ) i brooked up with my boyfriend. In 14 November, Friday, i should go to shop to buy t shirt. The shop was the same street when i saw him first. And 14 November i saw him again, he came opposite side of me but when i exited shop he was front of me, he just looked at me, and passed me. Then i turned to back to know he also turn or not, i saw he also turn and looked at me again, i felt excited.

Weird Phone Call #2

I was calling about a job. For some reason I seemed to be having difficulty dailing the number. When the person on the other end picked up they said "such and such chemist how can I help".<br /> I hung up confused. The chemist that had answered happened to be the one I went to to get my medication. I hadn't noticed but I had run out and needed to get more. This happened to be my last chance to pick up my script so I went to the chemist immediately. When I got there I lost the number for the job.

Weird Phone Call #2

I was calling about a job. For some reason I seemed to be having difficulty dailing the number. When the person on the other end picked up they said "such and such chemist how can I help". I hung up confused. The chemist that had answered happened to be the one I went to to get my medication. I hadn't noticed but I had run out and needed to get more. This happened to be my last chance to pick up my script so I went to the chemist immediately. When I got there I lost the number for the job.

Weird Phone Call

I once received a call and heard two people talking. I could hear them but they couldn't hear me.<br /><br /> It happened to be my dad talking to a lady named Suzanne who wanted my number so she could call me.<br /><br /> After the phone call ended she called me.<br /><br /> The only person I told this story to said "You should have picked up the phone and been like "hi Suzanne".<br /><br /> Except I never told him her name was Suzanne he just made it up on the spot.

A trip to Scotland

I live in Kent England and I have a close female friend who works for a company called `Iron Mountain' they only have two branches...one in Kent and one in Glasgow Scotland, whilst traveling by coach with my wife on holiday I fell asleep for about an hour and woke up in a traffic jam, I decided to spend some time tidying up the numbers on my mobile phone so I scrolled down the list and found the work number of my close female friend from `Iron mountain' as she told me it was a new number and EXACTLY at that moment I looked out of the coach window and two metres away on the wall was the name of the Scotland branch of Iron Mountain....we were actually sitting in a traffic jam outside of the branch at exactly the same moment as I looked for the number on our phone. I would not have been amazed if it was a regular high St store or McDonalds but there are only two branches in the UK and we were 4 hundred miles from home and stuck outside the branch at exactly that moment....what's the chances of that happening ??

Won't be topped, ever...

Clouds of Glory was conceived and written in 1983-84 and copyrighted in the files of the Library of Congress. Registration Number/Date: TXu 203-171/12 July 1985. Attached at the end are 100 pages of newspaper quotes matching in detail, in identical parallels, sometimes word for word, the historical event described within Clouds of Glory, the collapse of the Soviet Union. Thereby predating the event by years.

Miracles...

A friend told me this story: His wife is very Catholic, but he was a Protestant and not much of a believer. But he turned Catholic for her as a birthday-present. He told God: "Now I did my best for THEE , let´s see what you can do, - it is your turn !" He usually went to work changing for one bus to another, this altogether would took cca. 30 minutes. But this time the first bus came "in a split of a second" and the second one too. So he arrived at work in 8 minutes . He did not remember that ever happening before . The second day this miracle was repeated; travelling time: 8 minutes. And so happened the third day. He started to count not more than 10 minutes duration for his journeys. But from the forth day onwards buses arrived as earlier (before he asked God for a sign ) and his journeys took 30 minutes. "Miracles, , last three days." - God told him and he turned a true believer .

Sobriety and a baby

There are multiple coincidences in this unfolding story. First, I was in my Aunt's bathroom in Los Angeles two months ago and looked over at a Georgia O'Keeffe print on the wall. I then left and walked to an AA meeting where an elderly lady approached me afterward and pointed to some flowers which I didn't see, and she said "Those are the kind of flowers Georgia O'Keeffe used to paint". I thought it was quite the coincidence. Well, some days later I spent the evening with a woman I had been best friends with for three years but never dated or was romantic with although we'd both felt deeper feelings for quite some time. We were "intimate" that evening for the first time. It was Mother's Day. A month later I was at that AA meeting again and she sent me a text: "Please call me". So, during the smoke break I called her and she told me she was pregnant. Currently, she is debating on whether to keep the baby or to abort. I think these coincidences are pointing at that dilemma.

5 people in my family died on Sept 9th in separate years

My mat grandmother, pat uncle, 2 cousins and my wife all died on September 9th in different years

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