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!

Running into my Ex in 3 different cities

Los Angeles, CA: Shortly after my breakup, I was driving home at about 2 a.m. and who happens to pull up alongside me at a red light? You guessed it. Granted there was no one else on the road. San Fran, CA: About 3 months after my breakup, I took a trip to San Francisco and went to a Chinese restaurant in the heart of Chinatown. Who do you think was there? You guessed it again. The next day I was walking through a different part of the city of San Francisco. I turned the corner and bumped into you know who..my ex again! Miami, FL: I was visiting a friend in Miami and upon my return flight was you know who... My ex was returning home from his Caribbean cruise on the same flight out of Miami. It was at this point that I accepted the fact that God was truly putting this person back into my life for a reason. Here we are 20 years later in time and have maintained a solid friendship. I now believe that soulmates can actually be friends and not lovers.

Double

I grew up in a town called Port Pirie then I moved 2000km away only to meet and marry a man who's last name is Pirie. We bought a house in, you guessed it, Pirie Street. my mother in law moved into a flat in Oak street, my parents live in a house on Oaks Road. When I moved back to Port Pirie, I bought a house in Henry Street, my father's name is Henry. Oh yes, and I'm a twin.

Christmas Tree Code

Customer Service were discounting my friend's christmas tree which they had just over charged her for. Like a child I was repeating in my head my friends pin number for her card as I was sure I'd need to use it. As I stood talking to the lady she started reading my friend's pin number to me. I so wanted to say something but it was obviously inappropriate. She ended the 4 digits with an additional number 1. It turns out it was the product code on the christmas tree.

Ex's name appears frequently right after our breakup

Like pouring salt in a wound.....my Ex's name kept popping up frequently. Not really a common name (let's say Brett). The new Barista's name, painted on the side of a truck driving along side me, client's name...etc. All I could say is "Ouch"!

Numbers...111, 1111, 444, 555, 1212

I am frequently seeing 111, 1111. Whether on a clock, address, purchase price, highway, birthday, etc. Now I am seeing 444, 555, 1212 everywhere as well. I can no longer believe this is just coincidence.

Name coincidences

I repeatedly have name coincidences mainly for my clients. I will have a client with an odd name such as "Elmer" and later day I coincidentally will have another client with the name "Elmer". Yesterday I had 3 clients with the name "Nathaniel". Another day it was the name "Ezequiel". This happens to me almost on a daily basis.

Argentinian encountered

I'll try to do this as briefly as possible. Two years ago a friend and I took a trip to a beach in Mexico (we're both Mexicans but we live in the city) where among the people we met was the hostel's night watcher, a young argentinian man. We went on with our lives and a couple months back we decided to go out for some beers near my place in Mexico city. We were there for a while and eventually we started chatting about that trip we made to the beach and about the night watcher among other things, we were sitting in the second floor of the building in a terrace that overlooked a park, when my friend saw something behind me down at the park and interrupted me to say "is that him?" and lo and behold there was the argentinian guy we met two years ago at a little town that we just happened to be talking about sitting in a bench. We called to him and he came up and we talked and we all agreed it was a weird coincidence to meet there but it was even weirded to my friend and me because we were JUST talking about him.

A peculiar impulse

A unique tall bottle of wine was a door prize at a Christmas dance. Before the ticket was drawn I started walking slowly, somewhat dreamily towards the stage and when the winning number was announced, I held out my ticket, which was the winning number.

Branches of the family

Some years ago, I was staying with my parents in Swanage Youth Hostel during a half-term weekend away from our home in Hertfordshire. We were self-catering, so had a box of food labelled with our - rather unusual - surname (Heydecker).. While my mother was making dinner, two couples who knew each other came into the kitchen, and - seeing the label - one commented that they knew some Heydeckers and the others replied that so did they. It transpired that both couples were teachers in different parts of southern England; one had known my aunt and uncle when they were teachers in Hampshire, and the other had taught my cousin from another branch of the family in Kent. As far as we know, we are the one family of nine people in the UK with this surname; meeting someone who knows one branch of the family would be surprising but encountering two who independently knew different branches and were discussing them in my mother’s presence left her quite stunned - it would be rather surprising to find people knowing two different branches of the family, and it was even more so with my mother there to witness it! Daniel Heydecker - 1B Mathematician at Queens' College

Double Win

My friend invited me to his golf club Pro-Am. There were prizes for good play and one drawn from a hat with 250 names. My name came out. 4 weeks later, I invited the same friend to the Pro-Am at my club. Same deal: prizes for good play and one drawn from a hat. Yes, you guessed it: his name came out of the hat with 120 entrants. The prize: a week's golf in Mauritius! It would be nice to know e odds?

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