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!

My I guess you can call them coincidences

March 29th 1978 my mother gave birth to a set of twins girls. August 16th that same year my father and his wife had a set of twin boys. ( My parents of course were divorced) In 1995 temped for a bank for about 2 weeks there was a guy name Cliff worked there too about two months later I was on a train my way to Mississippi to my father's funeral. I got up to go the ladies room and who do I see walking towards me but the same guy Cliff he was the train on his way to New Orleans. A few years in 1999 I worked at a bank( another back not the same one were I first met Cliff) anyway, one day who walks into the bank but Cliff to take his friend out to lunch who happens to be the President of loans. That makes 2 different times I by coincidence meet with the same guy In 1992 I worked for a Title company an the lady who worked for UPS would come in in the mornings and again in the afternoons we'd talk with each other everyday. My Uncle died that same year we went to his funeral and parked in from of a church, a wedding party was coming out and one of the bride's maid was the same UPS lady comes out we looked surprised and waved at each other.

same name and bday

met a woman who has the same birthday and unusual name as me..we are just alike! ...our names are lolita ,bday march 12, very odd.what does this mean??

soulmates

My partner and I met since one and a half year after going through similar marriages with moody persons. We did and do so many things in parallel although we live in different cities and come together for about 20-30% of the time. In our close relatives, we share 2 birthdays on the same dates - my sister's and his ex's, my other sister's and his son. We took similar pictures with our babies in the same pose with similar colour jumper, we looked at the same hotel in Dubai while in different rooms in the house without consulting each other, we were selling online stuff on gumtree at the same time in different cities, we have said the same thing at the same time so many times now, we both had the same brand of mint candy at the same time in different locations... We both wonder how we do and say same thing at the same time? We want to understand these coincidences. Our characters and personality even is so similar and we have similar interests. Any help would be most appreciated.

Death Coincidence

Four years ago my husbands uncle died on December 25th (Christmas day) the following year his cousin died in a horrible accident a week before Thanksgiving, the following year another ancle past on Christmas day and this year (2014) his maternal grandmother follow her two sons right just on Christmas. It is very sad for all of his family.

Birthday and names are the same

My husband and I are both born on 24th August 1981, a minute apart. His mother and my mother share the same name. Their mothers also share the same name. We met in highschool and were instantly drawn to each other and became best friends, but never romantically involved. After school we parted ways, went into other relationships but always thought of each other. We met up 4 years after school and instantly fell in love, left our currently relationships for each other and got married 6 months later. We have been married for 10 years now. We have never met anyone else with these coincidences before. I truly believe I knew my husband in my past life, possibly as twins and we have come to this life together, a minute apart, to share it together again. I feel blessed :)

George Boole lived at the same address

In 1968, In the first term of my MSc year ( I was studying Mathematics and Statistics) I rented a flat at 5 Grenville Place in Cork, Ireland. A few years later, a classmate of mine showed me the book 'An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, on Which are Founded The Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities.' It was written by George Boole, the first professor of Mathematics at Queen's College Cork (now UCC). In the preface, written in 1853, Boole gave his address as 5, Grenville-Place. In recent years, the historical society placed a plaque at this address. When I rented the flat, I did not know that Boole had lived there.

3 numbers in a row

My father died young. A few years later my mother decided to move to the city and put her name down for a house being built in a new estate. More than a decade later, my youngest sister got married and moved out into her own house a few blocks away. Some years later, my mother, who by now had had plenty of free time to think about life's twists and turns, said to me: Isn't it remarkable? your father died on August 17; the house I moved into was at 18 Halldene Drive; and your sister's house is 19 Halldene Gardens!

Faithmates

I met a guy who is 4 years younger than me. We are officemates actually. We became closed to each other and at times when were together there is this weird feeling that I am looking on a mirror that I can see my self like my whole personality to him. After 2 months of being very close we discovered many things that are really bizzare about our lives. Like our partners both studied on the same school of the same course. That our anniversaries is June 28. That we both have only one kid and mine is daughter who has a zodiac of "Water Dragon" and his son's name is "Ryujin" which means "Water dragon" in japanese. I am 4 years older than him and my daughter is 4 months older than his son. We are both the eldest of 4 kids on our family. With him 3 of them are boys with one girl and mine is the other way around that 3 of us are girls with one boy. His youngest sibling is a boy and mine is a girl and they are both our step brother and step sister on both our mother's side. That our parents got separated when we were in grade 4 and both lived with our grand parents after.

Wonder why

My husband died two years ago while I was pregnant with our daughter and since then have met nice guys. One in particular and I'm not sure it's my mind playing tricks or if the coincidence actually means something. So my husband went into the hospital October 30 and this new friend/guys birthday is October 30, I met my husband 8 mos after my brother died and I met this individual 8mos after my husbands death. My husband was in sales and this individual is in sales (same exact sales type), both names start with S, both are the oldest and have siblings the exact same distance apart in age, my husband used to bring me 2 different brand of chocolates home and this individual on two occasions brought me the same exact brands, and lastly same personality type in their work with their customers.

crazy ball

My son (age 3 at the time) kept tossing a bouncy ball at me. After a few times I tossed the ball into the kitchen. It bounced off a few things and landed right in my lap where my son had tossed it each time before.

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