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!

Meeting my best man.

Once upon a time I used to be a groundsman for a factory,and one day I was charged with getting some bedding plants.I knew that the local hardware shop had a mini garden centre out the back of its shop ,so I went on a recce.Being an avid reader I had an autobiography in my pocket by Ted Simon called Jupiters Travels about the authors ride around the world on a Triumph motorcycle( pre dates Charley Boorman and Ewan mcGreggor somewhat,without a cameraman in tow!)Anyway the owners son came out to see me and in his hand was a copy of the book I was reading! Well as you can imagine conversation ensued ,a friendship struck up and he then became my bestman.

grandaughter's 16th birthday

Background- Jennifer, my first grandchild was born on the 28th Dec. 1995 in Queens Park Hospital Blackburn. I love her dearly and we have always been very close. 2011, A party had been planned for Jennifer's 16th birthday and I was looking forward to going when I started to be ill 4 days before. I was admitted to the same hospital, renamed The Royal Blackburn Hospital on 26th Dec. 2011. My daughter and grandaughter visited me in hospital on 28th Dec and realised It was the same room that they were in after the birth. The strange thing is that, 1) the maternity unit moved from Blackburn to Burnley 2 or 3 years ago and the ward had only been re-opened in the last week for seasonal illnesses and 2) I have not been in hospital since 1969 ! How weird was that?

M B

Just over a year ago my younger sister died aged just 28. Her 29th birthday was looming but it was really her 30th she was looking forward to and already making plans when she died unexpectedly. Just before what would have been her 30th birthday my wife had her debit card cloned in a cash point and had a new card and PIN issued. On the day of my sisters birthday my wife's new PIN arrived in the post... 3082. My sisters age, and year of birth.

Car Numberplate

I went to a talk recently, at the Bath Literary festival, by Dr Dame Daphne Sheldrick, who together with her husband set up TSAVO National Park in Kenya. I was really impressed by her, bought her book, and was in the middle of reading it 2 weeks later when a car went past be in my village (just outside Bath) with the numberplate T5AVO!!!!!

An old school house

I live in the UK. Whilst waiting for a flight from Canada to the UK I met a man I used to teach with 25 years before. He introduced me to his wife that he had married since we last met. Later he asked me if I still lived in Leytonstone. I said I did. His wife said that she went to school in Leytonstone. Half jokingly I said "was your school Oxford House School for Girls". She looked rather surprised and said yes. I replied that that is now my house. A few weeks later I went back to teach and a pupil in a class I hadn't taught before said to me "my elocution teacher told me that you live in her old school".

Rallymans son met in 3rd nation after 29 years

If you look at the results of the Hankiralli (snow rally) in Finland for 1976 you will see that several awards were won by David Hardcastle (UK) and Seppo Harjanen (Finland) in a Ford Capri 3 litre. Seppo had a daughter and a son, who was then aged about 5. Despite the successful event, the 2 were never in touch again. David retired from the sport 2 years later and Seppo went on to be a professional co-driver at world championship level. In 1994 David emigrated to Thailand and still lives in the northern city of Chiang Mai. There, in a bar very near his home in 2005, the Scots bar owner John Whiting (a witness to this concidence) asked for help in understanding a drinks order from a man with heavily accented English. David realised the man was Finnish and greeted him in his own language. Amazed, the man asked how he knew some Finnish, and David briefly told the rally story. At the name of the co-driver, the man's jaw visibly sagged. "This Seppo, he was single, yes?" demanded the man. "No" replied David, "he was happily married with a son and a daughter." "Yes!" exclaimed the man, "and I am the son!

birthday coincidence

During my nurse training in 1994 I had a training placement at Hinchingbrooke Hospital A&E. During an afternoon session we had an emergency admission where a woman had drowned in her bath as part of a diabetic coma. As a student nurse I was called into resus to observe and help with this admission. Unfortunately, despite every attempt, the team were unable to revive the woman. I was asked if I would like to follow what happens next and accompany the body to the morgue, then follow the autopsy. This was my first meeting with a dead body in my training and I had found the ordeal quite harrowing. I chose not to follow the case further as the woman had been born on exactly the same day as me, not just the same date! To be finding myself in a fascinating new career was one thing, but to find more about my insides whilst doing so, was one step too far!

Mileage coincidence

Just by chance a couple of weeks ago on my journeys home when glancing at my speedo i noticed the mileage each time i looked at it would be all the same numbers starting 66.6miles, 77.7miles, then 99.9. The next morning 111.1miles.

Chance good samaritan.

A few years ago a group of us were out on a night off from work. After a long night of drinking we got a couple of taxis back to someones house to continue the night. A short while later my friend realised his wallet was missing. After calls to the taxi company with no joy, he resigned himself to the fact that he'd lost the money and contents, driving licence etc... After that taking the edge off his night his mobile rang a some half an hour later, it was the next person to get in the taxi. They had found his wallet in the cab and lived right near him. They returned it to him the next day with all its contents as it was when he lost it.

Exam Luck

The morning of an important language exam I woke up with a phrase I'd read in a book the day before going round and round in my head. I had no idea what it meant in English and half an hour before the exam a friend and I looked it up and, sure enough, it turned up on the exam later.

Pages