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 house 50 years apart

I got into a taxi in Exeter, Devon and got chatting to the driver about where I'd just come from. I said "Maidenhead" as the nearest large town that he might have heard of (this is 200 odd miles away). He said "my grandparents lived near Maidenhead - Twyford actually" (Twyford's a largeish village about 2 miles from my house) so I said "Oh! You might actually know the tiny village I just bought a house in - Hare Hatch" (HH is just a hamlet - no church or shops). He said "That's where my grandparents lived." I asked "Which road?" My road. "Which house?" His grandparents had bought my house in 1958. He later sent me a photo of them on my front doorstep with him aged 4. His grandad built my porch. Sometime later I called a local company to make me a gate - just someone out of Yellow Pages, about 10 miles away the other side of Reading. I asked the man if he could take a look at the existing gate if he was passing. When I told him the address he said "My grandparents lived there". It was a different lot of people, who lived here before the taxi driver's grandparents.

the dead cat

My pet cat died and I spent ages trying to dig a hole to bury her in the garden which was deep enough not to be dug up by foxes! When I had finished I went and got the box with her body but it was too big to go in the hole. Not having the energy to do any more digging I decided she'd have to be buried with out the box. feeling guilty I got some pretty tissue paper and wrapped her in that. Then went to a pile of old newspapers I keep for odd jobs and pulled a couple off the top to wrap her in. I opened up the top newspaper, a copy of the Independent, and was confronted by an article for an art exhibition and an illustration of one of the exhibits. It was a cat standing on its hind legs holding a placard saying 'I'm Dead' . It gave me a real fright, especially as we don't buy the Independent which must have been left behind by a visitor.

The very person she didn't want to meet

My flatmate in my early twenties moved to London from Ireland after a fairly messy break-up with a boyfriend of a few years. One Saturday before Christmas she was Christmas shopping in Oxford Street. It was, as is usual, heaving. When she was finished shopping, she went to get the tube home from Oxford Circus, central line. She stood on the very busy and crowded platform, and had to let a couple of trains go by before she could get to the platform edge. When the next train pulled in, the doors opened and there stood her ex-boyfriend.

To be sure in Antigua

When I was in my twenties, worked in a fairly boisterous office in London. My colleagues gave me my own little jingle - when I walked through the office they would sing-song 'Hee hee har har to be sure to be sure it's S____ K____!' (obviously I'm Irish). One of my colleagues holidayed in Antigua with his family over Christmas, and one evening met an Irish couple who were honeymooning in the same resort. At some point of the evening, he muttered by little jingle to himself. Of course the bride recognised the name - she had been to school with me.

Not the usual golfing story

In Cornwall, I popped next door to talk to my brother-in-law. His house guests had unexpected visitors from London and they were chatting about a pub in Devon recommended by someone called R____. I asked "R____ who?" and of course it turned out that we both know her. I recalled an incident some 25 years earlier when R____'s son, then eight, was accidentally hit on the head by another child practicing his golf swing. After what seemed a long pause, the visiting couple explained that it was their son who had inadvertently clubbed R____'s boy and told us about the terrible night they spent not knowing if A_______ would survive. Luckily there was an entirely happy outcome. I was then able to add "The neurosurgeon who led the team that saved A______'s life is staying with mutual friends down here and is coming to supper with us tonight!"

Friday Birth Days

All of my close male relatives on my dad's side were born on a Friday, but none of the females were. Born on Fridays are: me, two brothers, dad, uncle (dad's brother), two male cousins (dad's side), grandpa (dad's dad). The females who were not born on Fridays are mum, aunt (dad's sister-in-law), female cousin (dad's side), and gran (dad's mum). I believe that my grandpa's dad and brothers were also born on Fridays but I don't know for certain any more than I've written.

Twice the spookieness

As a LSAR member I was rapidly deployed immediately after Christchurch earthquake and a couple of days later was searching a property on the edge of the CBD were I found a copy of 'East of Eden' in the rubble. Since it's my favourite book I flicked through the pages and found a envelope addressed to me when I was a student - it was my old university copy! Later in the rest centre I fell onto a bed but it wasn't until several hours later that I woke and noticed the running tally of certain bed related events inscribed on the headboard and looked behind it where my name was carved into it - it was my old bed from my university flat! The spooky part being that I attended a university at the other end of the other Island of New Zealand!!!

New aquaintences I nearly already knew

I travelled to northern France in 1999 to see the total solar eclipse. I found a great spot in a field but unfortunately we had cloud for the brief time the fun was eclipsed. It went dark however and it was a special experience which I shall never forget. Two years later I started work at the Planetsrium in Glasgow and two of my new colleagues were also in France for the eclipse, one of them 2km west of my position and the other 2km east of my position. Not a fantastic coincidence as we are all astronomers.

The Time

Whenever I seem to check the time around the early afternoon the time will be 13.37

Stan Green

David I arrived at your website (Understanding Uncertainty) after listening to your interview with Kim Al-Khalili on the recent Radio 4, ‘Life Scientific’, programme. I noted your request for co-incidences, which you are collecting for research at Cambridge University. The following might be of interest to you: - I have been experiencing recurring (often daily) co-incidences since my late teens (I am now 64 years old). These often alarm and unsettle me, as they seem to trigger other strange co-incidences and phenomena. My family and fiends have been witness to this over the years, to such an extent, they have become quite blasé and dismissive of the pure boredom of having it pointed out to them yet again. I have this proclivity for looking at a clock for no reason (not wanting to know the time) where the hands (hour and minute) are exactly upon each other and sometimes, for a pure instant, the second hand also coincides. This can happen up to half a dozen times a day. My eye seems to be uncontrollably drawn towards the clock, a very strange feeling. Clearly this happens in my home more often, as I am in close association with a number of clocks.

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