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!

Double Dream

When I started 5th class in primary school (only a month in) I had almost the same dream on two nights. The first dream was that I was walking along the country road leading to my house. On the road I saw mini-sized school uniforms sinking into the road. I also saw the full sized uniforms sinking. What was weird was that I even saw Junior Infants and Senior Infants kids running around the place. The sky was dark grey, like during a thunder storm. The hedges were bare, like they had been trimmed too much. The second dream was worse. Much worse. Recently, in school, a kid from my class had said "hey, I can pick up my friend". He picked her up by the neck. Don't worry, she survived. Anyway, in the second dream I was walking along the exact same road, with exactly the same things happening. Uniforms sinking and kids running. But in this dream, I was the kid who picked the other kid up. But in the dream, I picked up a kid from Junior Infants. How could I have the exact same dream on two nights in a row?

Add this to...'Trail of History'...post

By the way I forgot to mention that my mother was Russian...she was a painter...and a few years BEFORE I started my research, I produced an International Psychic Film Festival and my business card was a 'Pyramid and the Eye'...BEFORE i started my research. So you can see why this tale intrigued me so much. I just thought that might add some more oomph to the coincidence.

The 'Trail of History' to my doorstep

Another strange coincidence in my life involved a tale of remarkable people connected to my life. My mother was orphaned at 4 and her guardian was one of FDR's 'brain trusters', in some ways Roosevelt's closest confident...a progressive ideologically. I decided to research his life for some possible media outlet. As the FDR years passed my mother's guardian moved to the right and became one of the leading cabal that brought down Henry Wallace in the 1944 election. As FDR's vice president in 1944, Wallace would have become President Wallace instead of who America got; President Truman. As such, the cold war may never have existed with all it's consequences. But my mothers guardian could not use 'leftistism' to bring down Wallace, not in 1944. So a strange friendship in Wallace's life was used. It was his 'Dear Guru' letter that was used to ridicule Wallace into defeat. The Guru in this case was Nicholas K. Roerich, a spiritual teacher of Wallace. Roerich was a Russian mystic ex-patriot living in New York.

Coincidence or stalking (not likely)?

My life has been replete with coincidences. The strangest, most improbable involves three people. Myself, my wife, and an actress. I was casting for a film and among the many tryouts came Mitsou, who just happened to live across the street from me. I wasn't sure she was right for the part so I rejected her. Later that year I traveled to San Juan, PR with my wife and crew scouting a location for the film and while spending the evening at the hotel casino, in walked Mitsou with her twin brothers. Not too remarkable...but...6 months later my wife and I had traveled from New York to Manila to visit with her family. In those days you could stop off at other cities for an extra fee, so returning to New York we decided to stop at a few other cities, Paris being one of them for a 2 day shopping stay. On the way to Galleries Lafayette (a large store) we traveled on the Metro during rush hour. I felt a tap on the shoulder. It was Mitsou.

Everything's Coming up Roses

Once I was on a university trip to visit archaeological sites near Tucson, AZ. We were following our professors to an archaeological site out in the desert. On the way, we walked past several piles of relatively modern refuse (broken china, old bottles, rusted cans, etc.) One of my classmates bent down and picked up a piece of a porcelain plate. After taking a closer look, she held it out to me. I took it, turned it over, and to my surprise the mark on the bottom said "Tudor Rose." This was a strange coincidence because at that time I used an email address with "Tudor Rose" in it. (I have always liked the symbol for its symmetry and simplicity.) Oddly enough, the dormitory I lived in on campus had Tudor roses on either side of the entrance. This is not exactly a common motif in Tucson architecture. I didn't know about the roses when I chose to live in the hall, but I took it as a good "sign" the day I moved in.

Coincidence in the Sky

Again another remarkable coincidence in my life. A number of years ago I was flying from San Francisco to Manila. A woman seated next to me was looking at her passport. Normally I respect privacy and am not nosey, but something compelled me look at her passport. My eyes went straight to her date of birth (I don't know why). It was the exact same date of birth as mine, December 3rd, 1935. I've never met anybody born the same day as me, so of course I spoke to her about it. We were both astonished and amused. It was a few years later that I learned the most incredible thing about such a chance meeting. The first trans-pacific flight from San Francisco to Manila landed on December 3rd, 1935.

Coincidence or stalking (not likely)?

My life has been replete with coincidences. The strangest, most improbable involves three people. Myself, my wife, and an actress. I was casting for a film and among the many tryouts came Mitsou, who just happened to live across the street from me. I wasn't sure she was right for the part so I rejected her. Later that year I traveled to San Juan, PR with my wife and crew scouting a location for the film and while spending the evening at the hotel casino, in walked Mitsou with her twin brothers. Not too remarkable...but...6 months later my wife and I had traveled from New York to Manila to visit with her family. In those days you could stop off at other cities for an extra fee, so returning to New York we decided to stop at a few other cities, Paris being one of them for a 2 day shopping stay. On the way to Galleries Lafayette (a large store) we traveled on the Metro during rush hour. I felt a tap on the shoulder. It was Mitsou.

A Friendly Face In The Middle Of Nowhere

In the summer of 2011, I was on a family holiday in the Scottish Highlands - we had identified a quiet spot, off the beaten track close to the small village of Glenelg. Glenelg is close to the southern end of Skye. There is a small ferry which carries around 6 cars at a time from Glenelg to Skye, and we took this with the intention of doing a little exploring. After a couple of minutes driving on Skye, the drive-shaft of our car snapped! We had no idea what was wrong, but the car was now out of action - we were pretty much in the middle of nowhere on a single track road which led from an obscure ferry landing place. There was no mobile phone signal available! So, there was nothing for it but to head back to the ferry and ask for advice/assistance. On the way back to the ferry, we were met by a group of four people walking up the track towards us - one of whom looked decidedly familiar, and indeed was a work colleague - his office is three offices down from mine (in Rotherham, South Yorkshire). We were both astonished by this and started discussing where we were staying ...

Family tree

I met my husband in the 1970s in Newcastle-on-Tyne, where we were students. I was born and raised in Oxfordshire and he was born and raised in the west of Scotland. Many years later he started to research his family tree, branches of which are spread over many Scottish and English regions and States in America. One summer some American cousins came to visit. After staying a few days with us in Yorkshire we drove them to visit another distant cousin in Cheshire, a woman that my husband had never met, but whose name was recorded on the family tree. It transpired that she was born and educated in the same, small town as myself, and being as she is the same age as me I asked her to name a few of her friends there, thinking that we might have known some people in common. The first person she named was a boy she had gone out with - I had gone out with him too. Then she said that her cousin was at the same school as me, but as she was a year older I probably would not have known her. But I was in a year group one year ahead of my age, and the cousin was actually in my form group.

Coincidence of the last two numbers

Over ninety percent of times i check time on my watch the time in minutes is always excatly two numbers that match my ex's last two numbers of her phone number,the same has now extended to most of my call duration.Almost all the time the last two digits will match her phone number's last two digits in the two cited occasions.I cant be the one timing this,it must be a very strange coincidence.Please explain!

Pages