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!

Telephone coincidence

When I was a student in Brighton on 1971, I used to phone home from a particular red phone box at the same time every Wednesday evening. I dialled (this was before push buttons appeared) the usual number 01626 3210, but didn't reach home. Instead I was very surprised to recognise my grandmother's voice; she lived a few hundred yards away from my parents. Discussing it later, we realised for the first time that my grandmother's telephone number was one digit below, at 2109. What I still cannot understand is why the phone system connected the first 5 digits correctly, but the last 4 digits were all one down. I know I didn't misdial - the pattern would have been very different if I had. The coincidences are that my grandmother's number was closely related though without matching exactly, that the incorrect connection happened, and that the phone line was clear enough for me to recognise her voice when I was not expecting to hear it. I have not yet heard that this kind of coincidence has ever happened to anyone else.

Darcie Lynch

My daughter has a daughter called Talia Lynch. My daughter got pregnant again and they decided on the name Darcie Lynch. They also moved house and Talia had to go to a new school. She was put on a table with a few other girls, the girl next to her was called Darcie Lynch. NB this happened in WIltshire not Ireland. LOL

Herman the German!

A couple of weeks ago, my friend gave me a cake mixture called Herman the German Friendship cake which you mix and tend to for 10 days, then make a cake out of it and give the rest to your friends to pass on. Well, about a week ago, my dad was talking to his facebook frie nd (Patrick)about the cake. Then Patrick told my dad how his mother had started off the cake mixture while living in Germany!

Hospital coincidence

My two friends both had appendicitis in November 2009. What's really weird is that they had their operation on the same day and were both put in the same hospital ward afterwards!

Alan & Dorothy Hopewell

We were on holiday in Spain at a village called Calella, we decided to go by train to Barcelona for the day. After spending the day In the city we were making our way back to the station, and standing in a packed La Rambla, watching buskers, when an English male voice suggested that my wife should watch her handbag upon her shoulder, we turned around to be greeted by our son and our Australian daughter in law, who live in Brisbane Australia. They were on their way to us in England as a surprise visit the following week, and were in Barcelona for one day. They had no idea that we were not at home, we of course could not imagine that they were anywhere but in Australia.

Postcard

A few years ago I used to collect old postcards from second hand/vintage shops. There used to be such a shop in the old Corn Exchange in Manchester. It stocked literally thousands of postcards and I chose at random a black and white picture of an old decrepid farm house it was white washed and had a couple of horse head statues at the bottom of its drive and sign with "manor field" written on it. Fast forward 4 or 5 years later and I was visiting Southern Ireland for the first time to visit my future family in law with my soon to be wife. The directions were very flaky and I was soon driving round in circles and basically very lost. I managed to end up driving Down a single track dead end , I decided to drive to the end to find a way to turn around and at the bottom of the track was the house in the postcard. I still remember the hair on my neck standing up and no I didn't stop to ask the owners directions!.

Father's Photograph

Having grown up in Harrogate, I began work on Teesside in the 1990s. At a friend's birthday gathering at her home about 10 years ago, I was recounting how my father had run summer schools in the early 80's in York, so that teachers could learn how to teach children to swim. As a teacher, her face lit up and said that she had attended such a course. She disappeared upstairs and returned with a photograph album. Lo and behold, there was a "team photograph" with all the attendees and my father in the centre of the photograph!!!

Finding an obscure item at the precise time I needed it

Earlier this year I discovered that the plug chain in the bathroom sink had become separated from the back of the sink. Unfortunately the small metalic triangular piece of metal that connects the chain to the back of the sink was missing. So I walked to a nearby Tesco's to see if they sold any sink plugs and chains just so that I could replace it. As I approached the entrance to the store I spotted an identicle connector to the one that I needed just lying on the ground all on its own. No chain or plug, just that one little piece of triangular metal. I wonder what the odds are of finding that obsure single item, all on its own, at the precise time that I was going to try to find one to buy. I had never ever found one before during my 65 years and it was the first time that I had ever needed one. I don't even know how to begin to rank the magnitude of this coincidence in any meaningful way.

Meeting with former student

Date of coincidence: 15th November 2000. I had retired from work as a teacher (Chemistry & Maths) at a 6th form college, previously a Direct Grant Grammar School, where I had taught for 35 years. My wife and I were on an organised tour in Australia and were staying for several days at a hotel in Perth W.A. In the bar after dinner, I met a former student who I had taught for 2 years in the 6th form, approximately 25 years earlier. During my 35 years at college I estimate that I taught 'A' level chemistry to about 600 students. In the earlier years I also taught many younger students; during my time at college I had taught many other students of various ages. This particular student, who was a mining engineer, had emigrated to W.A with his family some years earlier. They lived and worked about 100 miles south of Perth but he and his wife were celebrating their wedding anniversary by spending a few days at that hotel in Perth.

Day of the week

Every year the following events always fall on the same day of the week (including leap years): My birthday 23rd Oct, my brother's birthday 18th Dec, both of my Parents birthdays 3rd Apr & 10th July, my daughter's birthday 21st Aug, my wedding anniversary 4th Sept, and Christmas day. Also the following New Year's day falls on the same day. this year (2012) it's all Tuesdays.

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