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!

Same PIN code 3 times

Some years ago I got a credit card with 4 digit pin code that I liked (let's say 5679). So I started to chose that code in all the situations I was able to pic my own code (like on my gym card, computer log in). Later on I was on vacation and I was rehearsing a public talk I would be doing about "Acceptance". Being preoccupied in my mind with my rehearsal I didn't notice that the ATM I just put my credit card in wasn't in service. In fact the bak was closed years ago. The credit card wasn't the one with my favorite number it was different one. I said to myself, no need to get upset, its a perfect timing to practice acceptance. The only thing bothering me was I knew I will get a new card with a new code to learn, and I hate memorizing codes. So was I surprised when a week later the new card and the separate envelope with the new code arrived and it was my favorite code, 5679! I called the bank and asked if they had any idea about my code for my other card. The answer was a clear no, it was just randomly picked.

Small world miles away

I moved from one end of the country to another (250+ miles), not knowing anyoe and took up a social interest which none of my circle of friends have. In the new social group (of about 15-20 people) I discovered that one member was closely linked to the person I was renting a room from (neither were previously connected to my social circle, and they are only connected by industry sector - which is very different to mine, even politically). In addition a second member of the group is connected to a mutual friend (as they both work in the same industry - which is again different to mine). The mutual friend lives more than 100 miles from where we both live.

Tong poo

I was in the middle of taking note of a funny 'lost in translation' chinese/japanese phrase similar to 'wong fook hing book store' which has been posted online many times online. The one I had found was 'tong poo' by the yellow magic orchestra. At that exact moment tim vine's girlfriend in 'not going out ' spoke mock chinese to lee mack in the scene where he is unconcious,which essentially is the sam reason to find mirth in the mistaken english in the foreign phrases.

Age differences

There's a 25 year difference between me and my son. There is also a 25 year difference between me and my father, there is also a 25 years difference between between my father and my grandfather... also.. theres a 25 years difference between my grandfather and my great grandfather. On top of this, there is a 35 years difference between me and my mother and there is also a 35 years difference between my mother and my grandmother.

Meeting with a countryman

About 14 years ago me and my father went on a trip to London, during the spring, not on regular tourist dates that is, while there we went sightseeing all around and found a small boardgame store located in a cellar on some odd street. We decided to go inside, the room with tye games was no larger than 5x5 metres. There was one other customer in tye store. Me and my father started talking to eachother and after a while this other person comes up to us, speaking swedish. Apparantly all three of us were swedish tourists, in this small store.

Men meeting on a beach

Several summers ago, in north western Scotland, we were on Clashnessie beach. This being in Sutherland, there was no-one else there. We only went to this beach once that summer. We saw a man walking across the sand, looking very purposeful, not looking at us. My partner John said something like "that's David, what is he doing here?!" He then went across to him and chatted. It transpired that David used to work with John in Cambridge up until a year before, had then left that job and decided to walk around the whole of the coast of the British Isles, with girlfriend following in the "backup" vehicle - a VW campervan. John had been unaware of all this. David had that day been making his way around that particular bit of the Stoer penisular, north of Lochinver, during the few hours when we also happened to be there.

20 years and 500+ miles

In the early 90s I dated a guy for a few months in Cork, Ireland, where we were both from. I emigrated to the US and we lost touch. 18 years later I moved to Cambridge and within a month I had a message on Linked in from my ex. I had popped up as somebody he might know and he was living in Cambridge too. We are now a very happy couple! We would love to know the mathematical probability of that happening.

interrupted transmission

Sitting at work during a quiet period on my own listening to the radio, I audibly passed wind, and at that very moment the radio lost reception for a few seconds!

Randomly reunited

My best friend as a little girl was named Jeni. We went to the same church, and, when we were old enough, the same school. Then her family moved and we no longer went to the same school, but coincidentally a year later my family moved to a house only two houses down from her family. We were now neighbors and classmates once again. Then her family moved across the United States to Pennsylvania and we were pen pals and I traveled to visit her. Later her family moved to California and I continued to write and went to visit. Then her family moved back to our town and we lost touch. We both made plans for college and coincidentally not only enrolled in the same school, we ended up in neighboring dormitory rooms.

Unlikely rescue

Catherine Proctor of Wells Sailing Club (Norfolk) was wearing contact lenses (in the 1970s, early days of contact lenses – they were expensive!). The wind was quite light and the sea was quite calm. She rubbed her eye and a contact lens popped out and flipped onto the surface of the sea. She yelped and exclaimed her distress to her fellow sailors. A sailor in a following boat spotted the lens floating on the surface of the water (!) and as his boat sailed past, managed to scoop it out of the water (!!). Not exactly a coincidence but surely an extremely 'unlikely' event.

Pages