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!

Name and Birthday twins

I hired a young man as my husband's guitar teacher, and thought it was kind of fun that he and my son shared the same first name because it is not that usual - Tristan. One day as we stood in the kitchen talking, I felt compelled to ask him when his birthday was. He said, March 25, 1983. That is the exact date of my son Tristan's birth.

Finding money

One day a friend and I were out for a walk. My friend is a scientist, an engineer, and a no-nonsense kind of woman. She is also the only person I know who goes to Aruba; she loves to windsurf there every chance she gets. As we walked down the street in a small New Hampshire town, I was talking to her about how I always find money, and she was kindly allowing me my little stories about this. As I was telling her, I looked down and said, "Look, here is a coin!" Imagine my surprise when I looked at it and it said ARUBA on it. I laughed and handed it to her saying, "And I think this one is for you!" Another money story: When my daughter became pregnant with her first child, my husband went into immediate action and began making a cradle. My task was to find a 2011 penny to put at the base of the cradle to commemorate the year of the baby's birth. I thought that would be easy, but even though I went through all my pennies, my friend's pennies, and asked at banks, I could not find a 2011 penny. I gave up. After my granddaughter was born, my husband and I were there (Washington, DC) helping out.

King of the Road

A new friend and I were putting together a public storytelling event, and our subject was COINCIDENCE. We decided we wanted to have live music as people were gathering, so I contacted a friend who is a guitarist for that job. One day I got the idea that it would be fun for the guy singing with him to sing the old song by Roger Miller, King of the Road, so I found a You Tube of the song and sent it to the guitarist asking him if he knew it. He said he did and would have the singer learn it. On a whim, I decided to send the You Tube on to the new friend with whom I was creating the event, telling him I had requested this song which he might not know (he is in his 20s) so I wanted to introduce it to him. His response to that was this: Oh my God, I cannot believe you sent me that song! One month ago I had never heard of this man or this song, but just this morning I listened to the greatest hits album of Roger Miller, have been singing this song all day, was picking it out on the piano last night, and was wondering where this great song had been all my life!

My robin story

My 90-year-old father was an atheist. I believe it is very likely our consciousness continues after we die. While my father was dying last year, he and I had discussions about this, and I told him that if he found his consciousness continued after he left us, then I wanted to know. He humored me by saying, "I will be the first robin you see in the spring." I laughed and said that was not good enough, that it had to be obvious - like the robin would have to be wearing little glasses. So, during the last few weeks of his life, robins and my father became the theme. One of my sister's called and said, "Daddy, I saw a flock of robins and thought of you." He responded, "Why do you think I chose robins? Because they are so common." Now I need to describe where my parents live, which is on the 8th floor of a 16-story high rise on the Elizabeth River in Norfolk, Virginia. The living room where my father's hospital bed had been has two walls of plate glass windows. My father died on a Saturday evening, April 13, 2013. On Sunday my husband and I left.

spiritual journey??

last night I went to the movies to see the movie " there's' a heaven'. I just lost my son 2 months 1/2 ago and in front of me there was a man sitting I never saw his face only he took hi phone out and his password of his phone was exactly mine.. I took that very surprise yet weird.

Independence Day

Paste from Wikipedia , 4th of July. In a remarkable coincidence, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the only signers of the Declaration of Independence later to serve as Presidents of the United States, died on the same day: July 4, 1826, which was the 50th anniversary of the Declaration. Although not a signer of the Declaration of Independence, but another Founding Father who became a President, James Monroe, died on July 4, 1831, thus becoming the third President in a row who died on this memorable day. Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President, was born on July 4, 1872, and, so far, is the only President to have been born on Independence Day.

Time coincidence

For the last year or so almost every day I check my phone and the time is 14.04pm. I look at my phone randomly maybe five times during the day but always just happen to look at this time, It's not a significant time i.e a lunch hour as I am a stay home mum and always doing something different at that time and I don't subconsciously think about it untill it happens. My birthday happens to be 14th April.

same names

I'm not sure where to start so ill start with the Daniels, when I was 16 every boy I met, dated or went out with was called daniel, after 7 Daniels I met as follows:- 3 Ben's 2 Tony's 2 Jamie's 3 Ian's 4 David's I had two best friends called carly And currently at the moment I'm meeting Paul's and so far I have met 5 pauls. Also most men in my family have John as their middle name, including my son. My son's father has John for his middle name and his father is also called John and has a son called paul. My brothers father is also called John. There are also traits in each group of names they all shared for example, all the Daniels treated me badly in one way or another, all the Paul's had been married or were married and none of them told me. My name is Racheal and I know 5 other racheals, all of us have the same sort of interests and look simular, All the Paul's had jobs in authority like in the army or police. I had 3 friends named mel, they all betrayed me. I went to school with 3 people with my date of birth, my sisters friend also has the same birthday, then my friend gave birth on my birthday.

turducken

Read this word in a story for the first time yesterday and then today heard it several more times in a movie I was watching today.

Fourth foreign student killed in Brisbane in five months

This is a 'coincidence' in the news. Whilst undoubtedly a tragedy for the families and friends of the individuals involved, I'm appalled at the way the Australian media (including the ABC) are 'linking' the four separate murders of foreign students in Brisbane over a five month period. Especially since as far as I can tell the three previous murderers have been apprehended (or at least charges laid against three separate suspects). I was reminded of the analysis in The Norm Chronicles. A link to this story being reported on the ABC is http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-01/police-confirm-bashed-woman-was-french-exchange-student/5360002.

Pages