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!

There's a reason I lost my housekeys, and found them again.

I lost my house keys in my apartment for over 8 months. One morning, not even looking I found them. What is odd about this story is one of the keys on the chain was for a padlock on a locker at a former place of work. Two hours later a current co-worker called me at home to tell me she accidentally locked a key in a particular locker at a different place of work (and at a second job I used to work at) and was asking me what to do? I told her no sweat, I found my house keys this morning and I have a key for you!!! She didn't even know I had worked there. she merely called me to ask me what to do! I never told her I had worked there two years previously. She was incredulous at the fact that she didn't expect a key, but only advice on her dilemma.

Breakfast in Rome

Recently I was on a trip to Rome. I sat at a breakfast table with another lady from the tour who I had not met before. We chatted about out children across the table and established that they happened to work for the same company. I texted my son (who was at work in UK) and asked him if he knew of X (son of the lady sitting opposite me) and he phoned back and said, yes he knew him and not only that, but he was in the same 'team' and happened to be sitting opposite him right at that very moment.

MS

My coincidence is rather trivial and concerns the number 666 and different yet specific areas of London and the country. I used to reply or put adverts in the Lonely Hearts column of Time Out magazine in the late 80s. I don't think the volume of people doing it in those days was equal to those doing online dating today, I don't know!! So I was surprised when the foreign gentleman who lived in the flat above my sister's in London wrote back to me and because I am that sort of person to look for 'signs' I checked to see if his box number was at all relevant it was B666. A short while after this, I think I must have done a lot of replying to adverts as the other people at the bedsit place were getting fed up of the phone ringing and called down to even no one at times "Void!!" is what I thought they said but I may have been mistaken as it rang and I could not be bothered to trundle all the way upstairs to the coinbox phone.

The saddest time of my life

Hello, my name is Debbie and this is my true story.,, Born 1958 1958-1976---mentally, physically, emotionally abused by my mother. Forced to quit high school, ran away, took drugs. Ended up in the hospital from overdose. Sent to boarding school as a punishment for running away. 1977-1984-- Stopped taking drugs. Met a man 14 years my senior and had two beautiful children. Divorced because of age difference (during this time I was very selfish and just a stupid kid.) My mother passed away in 1982. I forgave her 10 minutes before she passed away in her hospital bed, but she never asked me for forgiveness. That really hurt. 1984-1992-Met a boy 6 years my Junior and had two more beautiful boys. Now I have 4 children. The Marriage was very strained, his mother and sister were alchoholics and made my life hell. We moved to Texas where he ran a Company in Mexico. He met a woman in Mexico and had an affair. I took the kids and returned home to Mi. Myself and my kids stayed with my first husband as we were always friends even after the Divorce. 1992-1997...After a few weeks of staying with my first husband I met a man that was the perfect man in my eyes.

meeting someone I have not met in years

I met my friend ami in a store and I have not seen her in 3 years

Simultaneous call

My brother and I call each other at most once a year. A few years ago, I decided to give him a ring. It wasn't either of our birthdays or anything like that, I just thought he might appreciate the effort. When I picked up the telephone, as I listened to make sure I had a dial tone, I heard his voice on the line. He had just called but the phone had not had a chance to ring before I had picked it up.

met again

We were travelling to a suburb of London in my father's vintage car and stopped at motorway services. Someone stopped and complimenting my father on the car, chatted a little with him. We continued on our journey went to several places when we arrived, and several hours later we need to find a particular road. We slowed to ask a pedestrian if they knew where this road was. He was the same person who had admired the car earlier in the day. (He recognised the car, my father didn't initially recognise him.) The purpose of his journey had been to visit his brother for lunch. After lunch they had decided to go for a walk and were exactly at the point where we decided to ask for directions at the time we looked for someone to ask. This was in the summer in about 1984.

Birthday Coincidence

I was reading this site for the first time yesterday. I am fascinated with a few coincidences that have left an impression on me, and therefore left me interested in coincidences in general. I am hoping to post them here, but while all that was fresh in my mind, one occurred yesterday on my birthday. OK, so 1 in 365 people have their birthday the day after Christmas, no big deal. I went to the pharmacy, "Birth date please...", I answered "12/26/66" and the technician proceeded to fetch my order. She is otherwise very friendly and if she had noticed, she would have made a big deal that yesterday was also my birthday, but to her it was just information; completely disconnected from where we were in the calendar year. I also find it interesting the extent to which our brains compartmentalize information, so much that if I were signing a check, and asked her what day it was; she would easily recall that it was 12/26.

22

My wife was born on 22/1, got married 22/9, first child born 22/6, second 22/1 and third 22/5! What are the odds of that?!

passing cars

A narrow winding country lane with a few passing places and 2 cars randomly driving in opposing directions. The frequency of coinciding at or near the passing place seems higher than the frequency of one car needing to reverse a considerable distance. The passing places often look well worn. I was explaining it to a friend who was driving. It happened. "Your case in point, right there" he said. I was unsurprised yet am still intreagued as to the possible mechanism. I've tried to rule out 'forgetting the times one has to reverse' for I know they are relatively few. Also, I suspect those points at which a place has developed and widened by erosion, are discrete points of most coincidence. There are no regulating traffic lights at either end of the road.

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