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!

mrs norma digges

1t involves a Tudor mansion in Essex , the home of the lords Petre since the time of Elizabeth 1st .During the last few years ,in the course of following through some family history i have discovered that one of the Digges family was a priest there dUring the 18th century , later on (50years )found that one of the Digges wives had performed as an actress there coming down from London to give a special performance . Around the same period, still the late 18th century Thomas Digges of Virginia , a spy for George Washington makes clear that his mother, an Attwood had grown up in the house. Finally in the 1970's I ,Norma Digges took sixth formers there to concerts . None of the Digges family members lived any where near the property, although I did live in Essex. Ihave only recently connected up these events . What do you think are the odds?

Same Name Old Friends

I have two friends named Fahad. One is my school friend and the other is the university one. It has been about 14 years since I have met my school friend, and also for my university friend we don't meet that often, not to forget I passed out 5 years ago, so we meet like once a year. Today I was managing my phone book contacts when I found my school friend Fahad's name, whose number I had gotten from our common friend but I hadn't contacted him, so I decided to message him and he started responding as to who I was.

Charity shop

I work in a charity shop and all the volunteers have noticed that when you are thinking about something you need, it often just turns up. Nobody can really explain this. Then a customer who had just painted a room in her house eggshell blue said that everywhere she went, she saw stuff that was egg-shell blue and she had just found an egg-shell blue vase and she bought it. I thought that given she had been staring at the colour for a couple of days, it was not so surprising that she should really notice other things that were the same colour - they woud just leap out at her because she had really been focussing hard on that colour. But in the shop, we have all noticed that things you are focussing on tend to turn up - books, bicycle panniers - net curtains, all sorts of things. I was asking the ladies in the shop about this and suggested that perhaps it is not that surprising becuase given that so much stuff is donated, it is not that surprising that you will find at least one of the things that you have been thinking about recently - but we don't tend to notice all the things you have been thinking about recently where nothing is donated.

Surprising Repetitions

Having found myself, by coincidence, in so many potentially life threatening positions and in addition having done so many dangerous, life threatening things in my life, placing myself in so many dangerous situations either because of stupidity or lifestyle choices; after 6+ decades -I am amazed and find it extremely unlikely that I am still alive yet here I am. I can think of at least 12 incidents where, given the circumstances, I think my chances of survival were maybe 1 in 100. Not complaining, just surprised.

BIRTHDAYs

My first boyfriend had the same birthday with my father, then later on when I was a university student I sympathized with 2 guys, one was attending foreign languages and the other theology, both of them married after finnishing their studies with thier girlfriends (both distance relationships). The girls were born on the same day, the same mounth, the same year like me; then both families left the coutry for united states. Few years later I had a nice relationship and I friendly broke up with that time boyfriend, we are still close friends.. I got married and I have my son birthday on his birthday. He got married three years later and his wife again has her birthday on my birthday (the same day, mounth, year)

Nextdoor neighbour

When I was 2 yrs old, Henriette aged 4 lived nextdoor. They moved at the end of that year to a different town, and neither she or her family had any further contact with my family. Thirty years later I got a job at a teachers' training college about 1500 km from where we had lived as neighbours. To my surprise my immediate boss turned out to be Henriette!

Long Time No See

While walking back from the tolet block in Camonix France way back in 91, I bumbed into an old friend from high school days who was visiting the vally for a couple of days. Nothing ususal except that we were both from New Zealand and hadn't seen each other for at least 10 years - even when we were living within the Wellington area. Didn't see each other again and haven't since.

Work/Life Balance

In September of 2005 I hired a woman to work as my administrative assistant in Duncan BC (on Vancouver Island). In October that year, she and her mother travelled to Vanderhoof BC (northern BC) for a visit and proceeded to tell old family friends about the job, about me and about the organization. In November of 2005 I met a man on Plenty of Fish. He lived in Richmond BC. I was unsure how to pronounce his name but knew that he was Dutch origin, as was my new admin. When I asked her about how to pronounce the name, she immediately wanted to know how I knew this man. I said I had met him online and was going to be meeting him in person soon. It turns out he was the son of the family friends she had just been visiting and she hadn't seen him in in 20 years. The coincidence is something that we still talk about today. Through him I also identified others that were family friends that I knew before we had met. When this lovely admin died prematurely, we attended her memorial service, he knowing half of her friends (those from Vanderhoof) and me knowing the other half (from Vancouver Island.)

Lens caps lost and found

As a child I bought a pair of binoculars. We visited a hill one side of the town where I lived to try out the binoculars. Unfortunately I lost one of the lens caps. Some weeks later we visited another hill the other side of the town and I found a lens cap that someone else had lost. It fitted my lens perfectly. I like to think that the other person who lost their lens cap found mine.

Vivid Dream of Death

Roughly two weeks ago when I started a new job I had a dream Tuesday July 17th of my wife passing away, It was very vivid and I remember all the details of the dream. The next day the person sitting next to me in our training class had a heart attack and died. They were unable to revive him. Coincidence?

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