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!

Favourite earring returned

On 27th September 2013, I visited Cambridge to meet up with a dear friend who also did her PhD at Cambridge almost 20 years ago. After a relaxing day enjoying the sights and reminiscing about old times, we went to the ladies loo at Lion Yard in the centre of Cambridge before heading back. My friend took the bus towards Babraham Road and I went to the rail station. When I reached the platform a charming lady, whom I had never met before, pointed towards an empty train on the adjacent platform, and asked if we were standing on the correct platform for the train to London. I said that we were, and that we would have to stand outside in the cold and wait for our train. We then decided to sit in the empty train until our train arrived. After a brief conversation around the reasons for our visit to Cambridge that day, she looked at me and said 'you have lost a earring'. I felt my ear and realised that I had indeed lost one of my earrings. She then said 'I have it!'. The amazing thing was that she had also gone to the Ladies loo at Lion Yard noticed the earring and had hooked it onto her hair.

Meeting strangers twice, twice

I have two different stories accounting for the same type of coincidence: meeting a stranger twice. 1. One morning I saw a girl who looked like a girl from school. It was not the girl from school, but she looked a lot like her and was wearing a red sweater. Later that afternoon, at a restaurant in a completely different neighborhood of the city, I saw the same girl again, wearing the red sweater. 2. My sister and I were flying from New York to San Jose on a return flight over the weekend. On the Friday flight, bad weather made that there was a very long queue of planes wanting to take off, and our flight was delayed 3 hours on the runway, during which we were stuck in the plane. I did not have a phone with me and asked the lady sitting next to us to please let us use her phone to call our family and let them know we were delayed. She kindly let us do it, and after a long wait we finally made it to San Jose. On the return flight to New York on Sunday evening, the same lady was also a passenger, and she was wearing the exact same clothes as on Friday.

Coincidences

I seem to experience a "rash" of coincidences that occur over several days or weeks. Many of them have to do with typical coincidences such as last week when I got into my car and I immediately thought of Kurt Cobain and said to myself - "Ahhhhh Kurt, gone too soon". Then I turned on the radio and there he was! Other coincidences are truly strange when I'm thinking of a specific phrase I read, and two days later, I come across the exact phrase in a much older book! Other times, my husband and I will be having a conversation such as a few weeks ago when we were lamenting the loss of a type of person we miss seeing out in the world that we used to see all the time - those benignly eccentric types who are educated, literate, and curious and seem to be nowhere to be found, especially here in rural North Carolina where we currently live for work. Anyway, we were driving through downtown Raleigh and suddenly I had the idea to go to a brewpub and have a beer . After about 10 minutes, a man sits down next to my husband.

Collapsing audiences

I'm a regular theatre goer. At the RSC today, along with two friends to see Richard II with David Tennant playing Richard. The last occasion we had all three seen the play was at the Donmar Warehouse with Eddy Redmayne playing the lead. On that occasion a member of the audience collapsed during the first half of the performance. Eddy Redmayne stopped his speech, asked if there was any medical professional in the audience and the performance was stopped. This afternoon, at the same point in the play, a member of the audience collapsed and the front of house manager came on stage to stop the performance. The three of us were overwhelmed at this coincidence. It's an unusual occurrence to have this happen once in the theatre. Twice is a coincidence. But Richard II, same play, a member of the audience collapsing at the same point, the performance being stopped and we were all three there on both occasions. An amazing coincidence.

Serendipitous book finding

I am writing a PhD on ancient Greek art and was starting to research general theoretical approaches to art history. One morning, I came across the name of an art historian- Erwin Panofsky. I am sorry to say I had not heard of him before, though he is quite an influential figure in 20th century art history. I Googled him and found an essay by him that I began reading. At one point I left my desk to bring a book back to the university library. As I left the library, I passed by the book swap shelves, and on the top shelf was a book of essays by Erwin Panofsky, and the first one was the essay which was still open on my laptop screen upstairs.

Met a man who has the same name

I was sitting in Starbucks and I met this man. His first name is my last name. And my first name is his mother's first name.

As soon as I thought of him, he walked by.

I was sitting in the kitchen with my mother and the moment (literally, the split second) I began talking about my friend, Patrick, he walked by, in front of my kitchen window with his girlfriend. I was amazed. He does live up the block from me. However, that was really coincidental. And today, I looked on line for a number to call this company who is fixing my air purifier and at the exact moment the person from the company called me. And when my dad passed away ten years ago, a few months after he died, I was in the bathroom looking in the mirror and through the mirror, I saw him sitting on the couch in the living room looking at me. I saw him through the mirror. It was just a few seconds.

suprising coincident.

I'm Ladidi About 3yrs back a guy (Peter) walked into my office and asked me to help him with Microsoft Project, I offered him the assistance he needed and afterward I saw him once in a while and didn't see him again. During those periods I saw him, all we did was wave at eachother. Recently my department conducted a training where I was a support-facilitator. Suprisingly, he was one of our students, after the training he offered to get me lunch but I wasn't all that interested but he made sure we exchanged numbers. During this period I was seeking another job and applied as a Research Analyst at an Investment Bank, please note that I have a science backgrounnd being a computer science graduate but I was desperate for a new job so I applied in faith. After 3wks I got the job but as a project manager of the firm even though I didnt have prior experience in project management. I kept Peter abreast of my new job and he asked where my office was located and when I told him he said his parents live next door and they let out my office.I didn't believe until I resumed at my new office and he waved at me from his house.

Meeting an old friend in a different country

I am American and went to high school in the US. While I was in high school, there was a German exchange student one year, named Franz, who was friends with me and other friends of mine, including one named Justin. When I was at university, I spent a year in the UK, and while I was there, Justin came to visit me. We went to London for the day (I was not living in London that year) and visited the British Museum. While we were there, Justin was saying that he wished he had been able to go visit Franz in Germany, but there was not enough time on the visit. He had not contacted Franz about his trip. Shortly after this conversation, we rounded a corner in the museum, and found Franz walking towards us. It was so surprising, it was quite confusing initially!

coincidence or gift ?

Words said on the television the same words as me, at the same time way too often. Happens alot in a day.

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