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!

Met a long lost friend on holiday

Whilst on holiday in Switzerland I met a fellow student from University, with whom I shared a flat with for a year, but had lost touch with him. We both live in the UK but nowhere near each other and didn't have each others tel number or address. I stopped to look at a view and he walked in front of me.

Something in the water?

I used the run the national network for (female to male) transsexual men. In 1991, within the space of a few weeks, 2 young 'women'; S & T joined the network. They didn't know each other at all. Research suggests that, of that generation, only 1 in approx 100,000 girls would grow up and decide to undergo gender reassignment to become men. Both did go ahead and over the next couple of years had gender reassignment treatment. When these, now, 2 young men did finally meet at one of our national conferences, it turned out they were both born on the same day, in the same hospital in Reading. We still wonder what was in the water in Reading that year.

Same outfit and more

First coincidence started when I was randomly picking out a photo of my friend, Melissa, to draw her and her celeb crush, Shawn Mendes. When I sent her the photo I wanted to draw of her, she told me that she was wearing the same exact thing she was wearing in the photo. Another one. The same friend of mine was daydreaming of the Magcon boys and she could control everything right? But unexpectadly, Shawn would present his family to her in the daydream without her controlling that part and she would always daydream of Nash Grier but Shawn would unexpectedly pop up in her daydreams without her controlling it. And lastly, before I met my friend or knew she existed, I would play a game called the sims 3 ps3 version and when it came to creating my character, the name, Melissa Diaz would be the first name to pop up in My head so I always created my characters with that name and when I met her, her name was Melissa Diaz... I also remember her telling me that he would start feeling weird when she saw Shawn in pics and videos. She said it's undescribable but she gets these weird feelings physically and emotionally. Please help me figure out these clues and coincidences.

Single digit dates

All the important dates in my family are single digits my mother's birthday my wife's birthday (which is the same day) my birthday my son's birthday my daughter's birthday my wedding anniversary What's the chance of that?

Moon River

There is an advert running at the moment for Galaxy chocolate,featuring the song 'Moon River',which makes me laugh as it is the song Chevy Chase sings when he suffers a proctology exam in the movie 'Fletch'. I recently explained the cause of my humour to my partner and this morning (5th July) the Galaxy ad was on which set me laughing again. My partner remarked 'You watch,now that you have told me about that,they will screen the movie.' At 11pm tonight I am sat here watching the very movie and the very scene that I had referenced this morning!

January 20th

I'm not sure if this is one, but my great family Members, inventors, great grand parents, etc. all died on my birthday January 20th

Going to California

In January 2008 I was in the early courtship days with my husband, and we were driving north from San Fransisco on a road trip adventure. We didn't have any music on in the car, but I suddenly had a song come to mind...''Going to California' by Led Zeppelin. I mentioned that song to him and he said I could get his iPod from the glovebox, because he had the song on there & I could put it on. I fiddled for a few mintues, but couldn't figure out how to select a song (it was in random mode), so I just thought we'd listen to anything. The first song to play (out of over 1000!) was 'Going to California'! We had a great laugh. :-)

musical interlude teaches lesson to misogynist

A few months ago, I was berating my wife for breaking something else again. This time the stereo in her car. I always picked up the pieces and this was routine for us. This time however, I refused telling her it was a man's world when it came to DIY and maintenance (sorry!) and she should fix it herself. She ordered the relevant parts off the internet and by hook or crook managed to fix it just as I pulled up to the drive. As she switched it on, guess what was playing on the radio right at the chorus ...... Who Run the World (Girls) by Beyoncé

Don't answer the phone

Before I post mine I've just experienced something weird; I came across this site by chance and after reading through a couple of the stories I was about to go back to where I was searching before I found this site and as I got back to the main page I saw the clock display picture was at 12.34. For the past 21 years this number and time has figured so prominently in my life and as yet I have been unable to ascertain why; however, it's now spurred me on to share my own coincidence and read through the rest. Back in the days when we received wage packets with our cash inside, I was still living at home. Every Friday I would walk in the back door, take my wage packet out of my bag and pop it on a specific shelf in the kitchen. I had done this every week for 7 years. Another thing I would never do at work would be answer the phone before we opened (I would often get to work anywhere between 8 - 8.30 but we never opened for business until 9) as I figured if I did it once customers would then expect one of us to answer before opening hours on a regular basis.

Family Immigration

While researching family history I discovered one branch of the family left Bergen, Germany by sea on my brothers birthdate of 21/10, but in 1858, and arrived in Adelaide, Australia on my birthdate 3/2, but in 1859.

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