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!

Family deaths

My father died 18.04.1974. His son died 18.04.2002 they were both 67 years old both of natural causes.

Same birthday, 4 of us, but all different years

My DOB is 16-04-1953. My brother's DOB is 16-04-1955. In 1960 we moved into a newly built house in Horley, Surrey. A couple of months later a family moved into the house next door, with 2 children, a girl and a boy. We had never heard of or met them before. But it turned out the girl's DOB is 16-04-1954 and her brother's birthday is 16-04-1956. How rare is that?

Family Coincidence that I know

It is about dates(they don't exactly match but what was I gonna choose?) </p> <p>1. I was born on the last day of the first month(Jan 31st) and my mother was born on the first day of the last month(Dec 1st). </p> <p>2. My brother was born 12th June while my father was born 21st October. Just switch the numbers. 12-21 21-12.

My friend

I share birthday with my friends mom. My friend and I, we also end up reading each others texts or texting each other at the same time. And when he told me his career goals and goals for college were they were the same as ,mine and we had never ever talked about it prior to the time.

Birthday coincidence

My first boyfriend was born 18th of March 1985, 2nd boyfriend born 20th of March 1985, 3rd boyfriend born 19th of March 1985 and finally my husband born 17th of March 1985! All met in different towns...even my husband in another country.

Jessica

It was my stepfather's birthday on May 14th so I mailed him a card. My mom texted me today and said that she bought him the exact same card. Of all the cards out there, what are the odds of that?

Cafe Astrology Coincidence

I am a twin, and we were born on our mother's birthday - August 15. According to the system of café astrology, our "card" in a deck of 52 cards is the Jack of Clubs. My maternal grandfather's birthday is February 27. He has the same card as us. I think this is amazing. (But also unsurprising).

meeting

I live in manhattan, my friend Philip in Williamsburg (he's an artist turned printer for artist) I was walking back home from work and decided to take a different route than usual and ran into Philip who was in manhattan to pick up something at the apple store he also happen to have free time before he had to meet someone else in my neighborhood we decide to go for a drink we can't decide for a place finally I say let's go to your girlfriend's favorite place I have never been to before (it's a bar hidden behind a gallery) we go and have a drink we're 3 people in the bar and the other guy there went to Philip's school in London and was actually on his admission committee and remembers him... they have not seen each other in over 25 years... they both live in NY now how random is this?

Boyfriend and girlfriend

I was born on 5 December 1985 and my boyfriend on 27 September 1985. We have friends who are also a couple with the same birthdays, except the boy is 28 September 1985. The girls are the same though.

New Years Eve 2049

On the 13th June 2005 a colleague's husband was tragically killed in a cycling accident in France-he'd been hit by a car. My colleague received the news whilst at work and as you can imagine her grief was felt by us all in the office. On 16th June 2005 I purchased the New Scientist magazine and read the article headlined 'Double Jeopardy'. It discussed the latest scientific work on quantum theory and suggested that either space -time was an illusion or free will was an illusion. On the drive home from work that evening I noticed a cyclist just ahead that I needed to overtake. Due to recent events I gave him a very wide berth and at the same time my work mobile phone rang. I ignored it because I did not have my earphones. When I pulled up and listed the missed calls there was just one sent at 31/12/2049 and the time showed 23-59-59. (New Year's Eve 44 years ahead of our time). The magazine was on the front seat of my car. I have a photograph of the phone displaying this time.

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