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!

It's a Small World

My husband and I grew up in Canada. After receiving his Chartered Accountant degree Jim went to work for a company that manufactured and sold soda pop by the case. In 1975 we emigrated to The United States of America as the soda company was expanding to the US. After about four years, Jim left that company and was hired by a restaurant company. On his first day on the job the founder's son was showing him around and during the course of their conversation learned that we were from Canada. Knowing only one person from Canada, Scott said, "Oh I went to college with a guy from Canada!" Now Canada is a large country, and the US is even larger in population, and the college is in Florida and we were from Alberta. And now living in Colorado. What were the chances? But Jim politely asked the college friend's name. Scott answered, "Bob ***". Dumbstruck, Jim exclaimed, "Bob ***!!" It so happened that Bob, who worked for his family's business in Canada, supplied the soda company with the plastic cases for the bottles. Jim and Bob knew each other very well. What were the chances... It seems that it is very small after all.

Valerie Chinnery

re my adoption - finding out information only a few years ago, only to come across these coincidences - I am over 50yrs 1) my 'birth' fathers family came from the next (tiny) hamlet/ village from where I lived in Somerset for many years without realising 2) a 'real' cousin was a new partner ( newly from London) in the same solicitors office as my solicitor, in Somerset. 3) My 'real' father regularly went on holiday to the same place in Catalan as I used to sell property in 4) Both sides of my birth family have children the same age, and they both go to the same University at the same time ( Bristol) - but do not know this information 5) My boyfriend owed a property,and where I regularily stayed, in Bermondsey, opposite where my birth parents worked together . 6) I went to the doc a last year - didn't have long to wait, but meanwhile picked up a mag to kill time - like Grand Designs ... quickly read an article kept reading it, and it turned out to be about a property my half brother was 'doing up' in the Hamptons ( and who I was out of contact with for many years) .... sure there are more - will add as I remember

Prescience of a name in a TV programme

me in a TV programme Just before watching the TV programme, “Pet Rescue”, I think it was in 2001, the name “Pyewacket” came into my head. Although the name sounded very vaguely familiar, I thought it must be some town somewhere in the world, so I asked my wife if she knew where Pyewacket was. Not surprisingly, she had never heard of it. “Pet Rescue” was a TV programme where pets with ailments or injuries were taken to the main branch of the RSPCA in London and treated by a team of vets there. The very first case was that of a cat with an injury to its tail, and the cat’s name was Pyewacket! I thought I must have seen the name in the Radio Times or the day’s newspaper, but those entries for the programme didn’t mention any names – why would they? For weeks I was completely nonplussed, but about a month later I found the name in a history book I had read several months before, about England in the 17th century.

Same bank PIN number as future partner

Shortly after my future partner (Tina) and I met/started dating, we realised we both had the same PIN number (at different banks). Steve (Nuneaton)

From one Dan to another

I had bought my boyfriend Dan Constable a liverpool wallet, and after a couple of years it was still in its case so i put it on ebay (with his permission). After a 10 day auction and a few different bidders the guy who bought it was a guy also called Dan, and his surname Constable!! I had a go at my boyfriend, suggesting if he didnt want to get rid of it i wouldnt have sold it, he didnt have to re-buy it. It was only then we realised it was a completely different Dan Constable. Out of everyone on ebay who could have bought it....

Dad meets a new relative

Back in 1989 my dad married for the 3rd time. He'd moved to Shrewsbury after his 2nd marriage had ended. He was from Gloucester originally and had moved to Lancashire after his first marriage (to my mum) had ended. His new wife took him to meet her friend, Sheila. When they met, Sheila noticed my dad's accent and asked if he was from Gloucestershire. He replied that he was and that he'd grown up in a little village called Quedgeley. Sheila was amazed and said that she'd spent several years as a child living with her Gran in Quedgeley and that her Gran and Great Aunt still lived there, and mentioned a couple of street names. "That's funny," says dad, "my Great Aunt lives in the same street as your Gran and my Gran lives in the same street as your Great Aunt!" At this point, Sheila got her wedding photos out and pointed out her Great Aunt and Grandmother; my dad pointed to her Gran and said, "That's my Great Aunt and your Great Aunt is my Gran!"

Another Berlin coincidence

Another year I visited my cousin who lives at the north east edge of Berlin, much as North Barnet is in relation to London. I had phoned for a taxi to take me to Unter den Linden, very much in the centre of the (now reunited) Berlin. The young German driver started to talk to me and, having been told that I had come to Berlin for a visit from London, started to speak in quite good English. I asked him where had learned it and he told me "at school and I have twice visited my sister who is studying in USA" When I asked him where, he said that I wouldn't know the college, in a little town in Minnesota. "Is it Carleton College (in Northfield, about 30 miles from Minneapolis?" Very surprised, he confirmed it. "That's where I went to college in the early 1940s" I told him.

coincidence in Berlin 1

About 12 years ago I went to Berlin to visit an old friend and a recently discovered cousin. The old friend lived about 2 miles from the centre of what was once West Berlin (at its centre is the bomb-scarred and much damaged kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which has been very partially rebuilt.). After visiting her, i was walking towards the centre when I was stopped by a youngish woman who addressed me in American English (without first if I spoke English) and showed me a slip of paper with a name and address on it. Could I direct her to it? I gave very clear directions: turn around and walk in the direction you have come, take the first left, the second right, cross the street and walk down the street in the same direction. All the houses (typical Berlin-style blocks of flats) are clearly numbered and she will soon come to number 12. its large arched entrance door will probably be locked but there are entrance bells on the left, with name and number of the flat. She was to press the one for the lawyer's office on the second floor, right. I would advise her to walk up because the lift wasn't every reliable. I waited for a moment but no remark form her.

Research coincidence

I've been researching my family history for about 30 years. My grandfather, Edward Carey, always told my mother when she was a child that she was a very lucky child as she was the seventh child of a seventh child. My mother certainly was her father's 7th child, but her father was the 4th child of his parents (Edward and Mary Jane (nee Picard) Carey). When he was quizzed about this he was always very vague muttering about still births and things. My mother came to the conclusion that he was just trying to make her feel special. Once I started researching the family history, she would ask me now and again if I had found anything. I hadn't. She died in 2001. About 3 years ago I was in Widnes Library helping a friend with some family history, and also looking for newspaper articles about my grandfather's family, the Careys who lived in Widnes for a while. I finished before my friend, and went to sit at a table to think about what I had found. The table was in front of a large bookcase, which must have been about 8 ft long and about 5 or 6 shelves deep, and filled with books of various kinds.

Scarlet fever nursery grandparents

I work for the Health Protection Agency. I was due to phone a nursery to advise about scarlet fever when i received a call about scarlet fever in another nursery. The nursery assisstant i spoke to had the same surname as the child with scarlet fever she was enquiring about. I pointed this out and she said that it was actually her grandson. Immediately afterwards i phoned the other nursery and spoke to the nursery assistant about a child with scarlet fever...different surnames but the lady voluntarily told me it was her grandaughter. We have the data on total scarlet fever calls received per year in nurseries and peak call dates. You could probably estimate % of nursery assistants who are granparents of children attending. To receive two on the same day within minutes of each other when the key detail about the grandparent connection was revealed is wonderfully coincidental.

Pages