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!

Old Friend

My Mum and I had a day out at Southport with my small child. Whilst walking along the prom she met a childhood friend who she has not seen for about 30 years - the friend who had moved to Australia many years before was visiting family in the UK for three weeks.

Meeting mother on the Tube

Forty years ago I was a young solicitor for a large property organisation in Westminster. I lived in London but the family home was way out in Essex. One day I was out on business in Leics., and returned to London at about 5pm. To get back to the office I took the tube to Victoria, and changed to travel one stop on the District Line to St.James' Park. I found a seat for this brief journey and sat down. A few seconds later a very familiar voice said "Tim!" (my name in the family). In the London rush hour I had found a seat next to my mother! I had no idea she was in London, but she had been attending a committee meeting in Victoria, and had just begun her return journey to Essex. Apparently my shiny shoes had made her look up to look at their owner. Naturally our mutual exclamations of surprise amused the other passengers.

Coincidental Punting

My wife and I where on holiday in Cairns, Australia around 25 years ago when we bumped into a family from near our home town of Bolton, Lancashire. Not a particular rare event, but after the usual holiday commitments of "we must stay in touch" neither party did so and we have never seen them again either before or since the meeting in Cairns, except .... Around 5 years later both my wife and I went for a long weekend to Oxford (an addiction to Morse was probably partly the reason) - our only trip there. Whilst there we decided to have a try at punting, and of course the boat went on what a statistician would probably call a random walk until it bumped into another boat which contained, yes you have it, the family we met in Cairns on a weekend break!

birthdays coincidence

Within my family we have 2 birth dates shared by 4 people - my mother shares the same birthday as my youngest brother on the 7th September and I have 2 other brothers (not twins!) that share the same birthday on 16th June, one is older than me and the other younger than me. Same parents for all children.

The year long mistake

First the backround leading up to this coincidence. I had leased a car one year before which came with tax and insurance. The year was now up so I had the option to buy the car which meant taxing and insuring it myself. I am number blind, cannot remember numbers and have to write them down. I keep my car registration number written in my wallet and it ended in 779. A Kingfisher blue Rover 100. My parents had just moved house and left behind their washing line at the old house. It was a Friday in December when this coincidence happened. Thursday night my Mum phoned and asked if I could buy her a washing line and take it to them when we visited on the Saturday. I insured my car earlier in the week by phone and I had to sign the agreement and return a cheque. Friday morning on the way to work I posted the documents and cheque to the insurance company. Friday evening I called in to Solihull town centre on the way home to buy the washing line. At that time the main car park was large and temporary. It was on some development land (now a shopping centre) parallel to the high street. Along the length of the car park were about 6 different walk-throughs to the high street.

Radio 4 Coincidence

In the mornings, on my way to the office (I walk, I don't own a car), I almost always listen to my MP3 player- If I do so, I always listen to downloaded music (either a podcast, or an album). However this morning, I left the house at about 9:15, and for the first time (in about 2 years of owning the MP3 player), I decided to use its radio functionality, and I decided to tune to BBC radio 4 (if I listen to the radio under other circumstances, I either listen to radio 4 or radio 1, depending on how young I'm feeling). The first thing I heard was the presenter introducing Peter Green from Bristol, in a programme about David Spiegelhalter- I am a Bayesian Statistics PhD student, and I use his RJMCMC paper on a semi-regular basis. Later that day, I found a brochure for this year's RSS conference and saw that the keynote speakers were Peter Green and David Spiegelhalter.

A Book falls open.

I visited a dealer in Nihon-tō [Japanese Swords] and Hizen-zogan [inlay], at his shop in Kumamoto in Kyushu. While my friends were engaged in conversation I called upon my professional organ, or nose, and began to explore the boxes stacked on his lower shelves. Pushed to the back of a cupboard I found not a Sword but a box wrapped in fabric. It called out to me, so that I asked what was in it. It proved to be a box of karin, a very hard and rather rare red sandalwood.<br /> Inside, carefully wrapped, was a tiny signed golden figure of Amida Buddha of the best workmanship, under a delicate silver canopy, supported by a silver dragon, with an elaborate stand.<br /> The evening after buying the golden figure I lay down on my futon in the ryokan before sleep, to read a little from Mitford’s Tales of Old Japan. The book fell open at a page, where I was faced with a paragraph which I had never seen before.

Books In Bed

First situation. I was reading a book by Márquez and decided I'd had enough for the time being and put it down. I then turned on the radio to hear that illness had prevented him from writing any more books! Strange coincidence? Second Situation. Very odd! I was in bed reading Victor Pelevin's "Buddah's Little Finger". It was about 1.00a.m. Suddenly my brain clicked into gear that I may have forgotten to take the garden recycling bin outside to be collected. Not knowing what date it was I switched on my mobile phone. It said June 3rd. I went downstairs to check on the collecting schedule. It said, Monday, June 3rd. I decided against wheeling it out at that unearthly hour and returned to bed to carry on reading my book. When I turned the page over this is what it said: "Peter woke from his coma and looked to the bottom of the bed. His eyes bleary saw Anna standing there. He asked her where he was. Anna told him he was in a safe house. Peter then asked Anna what day it was. She replied, June 3rd!!" Fast forward twenty four hours. I received an unexpected, surprise parcel in the post from a close friend.

Yve

I come from a small village called Abbots Langley. I was traveling to Arizona and had to change 'planes in Texas. I struck up a conversation with a man who asked where I came from in England - I told him he probably would not know it as it was so small. When I said the name he knew it instantly as he had been stationed near-by in Bovingdon during WW2. A woman came to sit on the same bench and joined our conversation she asked me the same question and I gave the same reply - she then astounded me by saying she too knew the village as her sister lives a few miles away in St. Albans! I traveled to Tucson and was invited to someones home. I was talking to an ex-pat' who asked where I came from and could not believe when she said she also came from Abbots Langley in fact had lived just a matter of yards from my own home. This all happened in about 1983.

Bizarre encounter

My sister, a friend and I went for a woodland walk on a Spring afternoon about 8 miles from where we live. As women do, we talked and talked. On a fairly steep slope we stopped to catch our breath and I was in the throes of explaining my frustrations about a recent unproductive visit my husband had had to see the GP. My voice was raised and I was facing my two companions. Suddenly, in the almost empty woods, my voice trailed off as, behind my sister's back, over her shoulder, a couple with two children were passing. The man was the doctor I was just complaining about! I hoped he hadn't heard me and felt really embarrassed. He never acknowledged me. My sister and friend wondered what on earth had happened because I stopped mid sentence and the colour drained from my face. I had to wait until he had walked far enough away to explain myself. We were all amazed.

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