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!

suddently miss a friend or my parents

When suddenly I miss a friend or my parents due to long time no see, at the time of my hesitating to call to a friend or my parents, I will receive a phone call or a letter. It is amazing and coincident. I don't know why and can't get a answer.

Surprising Coincidences

First of all, I apolegize in advance ifI have any spelling mistake<br /> A few days ago, I was driving to work and in a small traffic jam, the radio started to play the song "Susanna" by the band Art Company . looking to my right, a truck with a huge writing SUSANA moving company was by my side.....<br /> a few days later i cought a show in the history channel about a toy called "Etch A Sketch", didnt give it a lot of thought.... the following day (today) i recalled the coincidence about the song Susanna and googled it, finding out the the proformer is ART COMPANY, so I Googled ART COMPANY and reached OHIO ART COMPANY wiki page, there i larned that this company are the distributer for the toy ETCH A SKETCH..... by the way, Im working to establish my own toy company<br /> what do you think of that? isnt it intresting?<br />

Number plate

I worked in a car spares shop which made up car number plates. We had a display on the wall showing the type of plates we could make up while the customer waited. On one occasion, a guy came in who wanted a front plate for his van. I went out to the back of the shop to start making it up, when I noticed that the registration had the letter O included in it. Unfortunately, I had run out of O,s, so I tried cutting up a Q which didn't work. I then tried joining up two C's but that looked awful. After 20 mins I decided that it wasn't going to work, so I went back into the shop and said " sorry Sir, I can't make your number plate, I haven't got the right letters in stock" "not a problem" said the customer " I can have that one" he was looking at the display number plates, there was a front number plate with his van registration on it. I didn't charge him.

Neruda

A couple of years ago I was travelling with Spanish and Chilean friends in Chile and one member of the group inherited the nick name 'Pablo Neruda'...as his name was Pablo (he is from Madrid) and apparently some resemblance to him. As I'm British I had no idea who Neruda was other than a famous Chilean poet. 2 or so years later I was on holiday in the south of France and happened to walk past a cultural centre dedicated to Neruda and for the first time I saw his name spelt. Some weeks after this once more the name Neruda came to my attention. I decided to google his name and uncovered the following strange coincidences. 1.) His father was a railway employee - mine too 2.) His mother a teacher - mine too 3) His mother died 2 months after going birth to him. My mother was hospitalised after giving birth to me for 2 months, and almost died. 4.) He died on the 23 September 1973. My birthday is 23 September. 5) His third and final wife was a singer called Matilde Utturia who he met at the age of 45. I made a very good friend who was my neighbour in 2012 her name is Matilde.

Jailed

Another person has the same name and date of birth, as me. One consequence of this was that a police officer was convinced that I am a criminal - so she sent me to jail.

Coincidence linking past people with the present

My partners mother came from Austria in 1936 and worked at a local house. I became interested in the history which led to a series of coincidence. The house and garden is usually closed to the public, however, while i was thinking about this we unexpectedly discovered the Garden was open for just 1 day of the year. We were surprised and drove back to visit. We were surprised to discover someone we knew had refurbished the house and Garden (someone who had died a few years earlier). We had just returned from holiday in austria and they were planting an alpine flower garden (we had just visited an alpine garden in Austria). The person who lived in the house in 1936 had a strong connection to a place 200 miles away near my home town. There were so many coincidences attached to this it led me to this site.

same odd birthdays, same places lived

I met this man, so far a pretty awesome guy much like myself in many ways. We share the same birthday October 31st, and we also lived near each other twice in two different states. I moved to south las Vegas in 2009 lived there until 2011 then moved to Oklahoma near Tulsa ok. I met this man same birthday then I find out that we both moved to Vegas in the same year lived a few miles from each other aother now we both live near Tulsa once again a few miles from each other. And met just by chance playing the app game scrabble.

coincidences - in a short time frame of 24hours

I experience days when I do or say something without any prior thinking and then later on the day something happens that relates to the action or what I would have said. yesterday a friend of mind was talking about her son's behaviour and I casually said that to attract her attention he will have to do something else or think of something else..... a few hours later her son ran from home and she found him 2 hours after... on same date I was joking to a new college about her husband who is unknown to me but has the same age.... was joking trying to find a connection with her husband who I have never seen just being my same age..... today I discovered that he is the cousing of my husband ex wife...... early this morning I just was checking my bank account to see how much money I have transferred to my brother;s account during this year.... an hour later my brother phoned me and said he is coming to settle the money he owns me.... these things leave me perplexed...... is there an explanation?

Prof

I had never used a car valet service in my life, when being short of time, I decided to use one to get my car in a respectable state for a visitor. I arranged for a valet service come to my work to valet the car while I was at work. A colleague who works with me and had also never used a car valet service in her life, happened to independently arrange the same valet service to valet her car at work on the same day, for reasons unrelated to my reason for using the valet service.

Lived in the same house

I was at a house party for a friend in a town close to where I grew up. I started talking to this random girl and I asked her where she grew up. She began to describe where she lived when she was growing up and it ended up being the house I live in now. Her bedroom was the bedroom I have now. So weird!

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