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!

Sharing event dates with other's in family tree.

I am very much into the study of genealogy. I've discovered a lot about my family's history, where they came from, how they lived, etc. One date seems to repeat itself often, being March 30. Mostly births, deaths, and marriages. The most meaningful to me being that it is my birthday, and the day that my Grandmother died. A bittersweet day, as she meant a lot to me. But I just found it odd that both her and I share this date with so many in our family tree, and wonder if it's a date that the stars align just right for events in our family!

Wedding day

A few years ago after getting a wedding reception invite I had to find something suitable to wear. I am not a fashion guru and not someone who wears suits. Decided to visit the charity shops. I found a suitable jacket and also a waist coat. It wasn't until I got back home that I noticed a small sewn in label inside the waist coat. The label was strangely a date, but even stranger ( the date 8. 06 . 62 ) the day and month was that of the wedding day I was to attend !

only person I know in Norwich

Shortly after I left University one of my friends got married in Norwich. I went to the wedding and this was the only time I had ever visited Norwich. About ten years later, having lost touch with this chap, I had to go to Norwich for a work thing, my second ever visit. I went out to lunch at a cafe and found myself wondering what had happened to my old friend, and just as I did he walked in and sat down at the next table.

Alphanumeric serial number ends in my Name

About 4 months ago I purchased a standard replacement 2TB internal hard disk drive for a spare PC. This drive failed suddenly and completely a few days ago. Wanting to claim on the 12 months warranty offered by the computer store I noted down the 12 character alphanumeric serial number and was surprised to find the last 5 characters were.... PAULJ. My name is Paul Jxxxxxx. Now I wonder whether some three-letter organization wanted me to have that particular drive in my PC?

5 year anniversaries happening at once

In the last few days my facebook newsfeed has been seemingly full of 5 year anniversaries! Several couples I know who met 5 years ago, and several people I know who have children whose 5th birthday it is. This feels like a cooincidence, leading me to think - "wow, what happened in March 2010?". But it is probably not statistically that unlikely, since we are only talking about 4 5 year anniversaires, and I have about 900 facebook friends. I am 27 so I suppose that probably increases the chances of this happening slightly - its probably more likely that people in their early twenties will meet an important partner/have a baby than some other age brackets!

Matching Birthdays

Me and my partners family birthdays all seam to cross over on the same days, e.g my uncles and my partners both on the 20th may. There are about 8 that cross over on various dates in the year. The strangest one is, my partner had a brother who died when he was a baby, he was born 9th January, when we found out we was expecting a baby the due date was 8th January, our daughter came into the world on 9th January same day as her uncle!! Also on my daughters 1st birthday my mother in law awoke to her radio, that she had not set to come on or anyone had turned on, playing the song (not a popular song - I didnt know it) that was played at her sons funeral, he would have been 18 that day. Very strange!!

Helicopters

I went outside for a cigarette with some guys on my college course who I don't know very well, I happened to ask for a fag because I was pissed off with college, but generally don't smoke. Anyway we walked outside and I was talking about some shit, but a helicopter above was interrupting me, I thought in the back of my mind that what I trying to say was so unimportant and crap anyway I stopped trying to speak over it. I sparked up, watching the helicopter move off into the distance, and was listening to conversations around me and continued to think how people just talk and think about crap all the time. In my line of sight another helicopter appeared - and in my head I was like they are getting well close. 'I imagined being in that cockpit, surrounded by space and sky, and then seeing another helicopter come within collision range with you'. I watched them get closer and could've held back mentioning it to the guys, but said something along the lines of "fucking hell, those helicopters are getting well close".

its about talking with my friend on a certain topic and getting that thingbin front of us

me and my friend use to share a room at a place far from our homes due to jobs in the same company .we use to talk over many topics no matter on any topic may be related to work or other stuffs ,when i say other stuff it use to be any topic the best example was watching tv and then talking about a specific movie or person or character and next time when we use to put tv on and yes the very next time we use to see that movie or that person or that character in a tv channel just while we were browsing through channels.these type of incidences are really common and we have also noticed that these incidences have a common factor and that was our rented home. I recently moved from that place and i m finally home but still when we talk on phone those things happen again ,but the best part is that no negative response out of it ever received by us meaning no incidence had a negative impact . while talking on phone my friend who is still living in that rented place had an experienced recently that whenever he decides to wake up in the morning after working for late hours (3 am or 4 am ) and he wants get up early at around 6 then ,then his bed shakes exactly at 6 am and he gets up tho

Hospital patient

In 1981 I was working on a urology ward as an auxiliary nurse I got a patient out of the bath it was his second time on the ward but his visit was one year later from his first. He explained to me he had come out in a rush and only managed to pick up a small towel, so I went to see if the linen trolley had arrived that morning with new sheets and occasionally it would have a towel. I picked a towel up and took it back to the patient who gasped and said that was his towel that he had lost a year earlier. This is a great coincidence because all items for laundry go to a massive skip where they are then taken to another hospital for washing. They were then stored and only released when wards needed more linen. There was no way of ever knowing which ward or even hospital the towel would have originally come from.

People Coincidences.

Very often a random person comes into my thoughts...it could be a relative or a past, or current friend or acquaintance...someone I do not normally think about. Very soon after this...they either get in touch or I hear news about them. Example 1..My Sister in Law fosters several children and also has children of her own. Last night I asked my wife how one of the kids were doing..as I thought about Her..out of all of the extended family. Within two minutes our phone rang to let us know She had been rushed to hospital. Example 2...More and more when I unconsciously think of a person I haven't seen or heard of for sometime...I bump into them or hear from them within days. Is this just coincidence ?

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