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!

Two coincidence!!!

I often pick up my mobile to call or text a person, which doesn't seem that abnormal. But I have noticed more lately that they have text me the second it is in hand!!! Coincidence I think not! </p> <p>AND </p> <p>Also the number 22 keeps reappearing it can literally be anything. One day 3 things I did came up as £2.20 in total a car park ticket , lunch and the change I borrowed to my mum!

Neighbours

Our coincidence happened on a far flung beach in Ghana. It was a 5 hour drive from the airport and tucked next to a tiny fishing village. The guesthouse was owned by my husband's best friend Tom. If we didn't know him, there was no way we would have found it. The year we went to stay there was also the year that me and my husband moved in together. We had bought a flat in Stockwell, London and had been living there for 6 months before going to Ghana for a Christmas and New Year holiday. We only knew one set of neighbours from our new home, but as we emerged from our hut on the beach on Christmas eve in the Western Region of Ghana, there they are - our neighbours from Stockwell. Neither of us had even discussed going on holiday never mind the destination, so it was a complete and utter shock to see them there. Unfortunately we have moved on and have lost touch with them, but remembering it always makes me smile.

Train of events

In 1975 I was a student at Exeter. My home was a small village in the Swiss Alps. In the autumn I represented Exeter on University Challenge and met the producer Douglas Terry. That Christmas, as I did every holiday, I travelled up to London to take the Orient Express which, on its way to Istanbul would stop at the small town of Aigle, a 20 minute bus ride from my village. As I got into my booked second class seat in London I realised that the man booked in the next seat looked familiar. It was Douglas Terry with a ticket for Aigle on his way to spend Christmas at l'Abri, 5 minutes by car from where I lived. I have always found it very odd that our lives should intersect twice like this for unconnected reasons. Stephen Senn

Randomly looking up celebrities/politicians that I've never looked up before.

Has this ever happened to anyone else? Happened to look up older celebrities out of the blue, and it just happens to coincidentally be their birthday when I look them up! Today, Feb. 5th, I looked up Valerie Carter because I heard her song while watching a movie to and wanted to find out who sang a song in it. November 22, I looked up JFK, randomly, I was curious how many kids he actually had and were still alive. I randomly chose to look him up on his birthday!?

Internet Surfing

Was reading about the movie "Promised Land" on wikipedia. Moments later, logged onto Facebook and the first story on my timeline was a status from friend saying he wanted to see Promised Land. Such events have happened before, especially when i'm listening to my Ipod on shuffle..and out of a thousand songs, the song I think about is the next song played.

from nowhere

1990, we just arrived in India the night before, stayed in the tourist camp got a rickshaw to kashmiri gate bus station delhi.Stepping into the station was an assault on every fiber of of my body, the mass of people colour smells, noise, every one seemed to be either moving or talking so fast,. we wanted to get a bus heading for a place called Almora, foot hills of himalayas, we were bombarded with pepole selling everything chi, pots and pans tablas(drums) clothes, statues, children danced around us, asking for rupiess, the poor and sick many of them lived at the station and all hoped that we might give them some money, There was no- where to put our rucksacks down, the ground was concrete, water and mess everywhere.We went from one place to another, looking, for a bus stand for Almora, there seemed so many stands, ticket touts trying to get you to go to where they are selling there tickets for, giving wrong information for fun!. We were hot, tired, feeling lost,Then from nowhere, a kindly faced, english speaking, grey haired indian gentleman appeared, asked if he could be of help, took us to the Almora stand, wished us good day (namasta) and left...

Pigs will fly

31 Jan - After Iran sent a monkey into space,I wrote a letter to the paper remarking "Pigs will fly when animals stop being exploited". I commented to a friend that "If an astronaut had a BLT then perhaps pigs would fly". 1Feb - The paper reported today "It's one small step for ham - pigs may not be able to fly,but a piece of bacon has made it to the edge of space." Company FLY ON THE WALL strapped bacon to a weather balloon as a stunt to show of its hi res cameras and created a bizarre coincidence t'boot.

Neighbors in China

I was on holiday in China with my family one summer when we decided to travel to see a small attraction which was about an hour and a half away from Beijing. On arriving, we get out of our taxi to see our immediate next door neighbours getting off a bus to go look at the same attraction! We didnt know they were going to China too, let alone same place and same time. Moreover, we very rarely see them when at home and have never bumped into them anywhere else before.

Once OK, but twice? in the same day??

My wife and I boarded a train, we were discussing a friend who was having a torrid time with a challenging teenage daughter. The district line train stopped at a station the door opened and my friend and his daughter got on. We chatted to them, they were going to go the the V&A museum, we were going shopping in Covent Garden. We got off the train first. We ambled around the shops and at around lunchtime we found ourselve in the Trocadero centre, no reason why, we never normally do go in there though. We came across our friend and his daughter again. It was so weird it felt awkward, like who's doing the stalking. But it was a double coincidence, chances of millions to one.

old friendly

I was walking to bond street tube station via Davis street. Its was about 6 pm on a spring day and light was good. I looked across the street and saw Howard B walking in the opposite direction. So I crossed the street, proffered my right hand and said: " hi Howard its good to see you." I then saw it washis double and more startingly also realised that I had dreamed of this precise event the previous night. My feelings odf being embarrassed were identical in life and dream. I asked myself what the odds might be.

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