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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 A C

Some years ago I was driving to work around 8am, listening to Terry Wogan on the car radio. As I passed through Grantchester Village I noticed that the Church clock was stopped at ten mins to three I said out loud "Stands the clock at 10 to 3 " and Terry Wogan who had been playing a piece of pastrol music finished the quote with " and is there honey still for tea" I was very taken aback A few years ago I was in the backwoods of British Columbia enjoying a drink in a hostelery with my husband whilst I wrote a few post cards home The proprietor eventually came to have a chat with us and asked us where we were from We said Cambridge Uk His reply was that he had lived in Devon before moving to Canada . Further discusion eventually came down to the house he had lived in At this point I turned over the postcard I had just written to my brother in law and showed him the address. It was his previous home in Devon There is no way he could have seen the card and he knew all about the house and neighbourhood Weird !!! It was the very house he had lived in

Date coincidence

This morning, 26th January 2012, I took down from my bookshelves my old battered school copy of Complete Works of Shakespeare to look something up. I don't remember the last time I referred to my Shakespeare but it was a long time ago. I opened it up, and there on the fly leaf in my schoolgirl hand was written my name and the date - 26th January! It was 1954.

Long lost friend

My 90-year-old cousin, Guy Hartcup, and I were discussing our favourite 20th century authors, and I mentioned Joyce Cary as being one of mine. Guy said that he had recently picked up a very early work by Cary, the story of how as a young man he had wanted to experience warfare, and had joined the Red Cross in Serbia during the war there (1915-1918). I asked if I could borrow it, as I had also read an interesting book written by a former boss of mine, a journalist called Monica Krippner, though I had long ago lost touch with her - I was last in touch when she was working in Vienna for the Atomic Energy Authority. Guy said, "I was staying with her a few weeks ago. We worked together in Vienna. I was also instrumental in getting the book published, as I knew she'd never get round to doing it on her own!" Finding Guy was also quite a coincidence for me, as I had never met him and only vaguely knew of his existence. His surname, my mother's maiden name, is a very rare one, and I was astonished to see it in the death's column of the Times one day. His wife had just died, and the funeral was held in East Sheen, a couple of miles from where I live.

book arrival at exact minute I needed it

I was planning my yoga class for this evening and wanted to use a restorative posture with props. I was about to scour through notes to find the exact props and position I wanted so I could write them down and there was a knock at the front door. It was the postman delivering a book on restorative yoga poses (I had ordered recently) with the exact posture I wanted to teach.... Not only that but I opened the book randomly & that was the first pose I saw. uncanny (NB I had no idea that the pose would be in the book.... I had come across it in a teacher's workshop before.)

Song and Game

Playing an online Flash game while listening to Bruno Mars, Lazy Song. As I landed my aircraft in the game the word great came up on the screen and at the same moment Bruno Mars sang the word "great".

Rupees Instead of Stirling

Some years ago in Delhi I was spending my last few days in a government hotel. When I went to pay they demanded stirling, so I was left with a lot of rupees I had no time to spend. It was my last day before returning to UK. I wandered around some very ancient ruins. There was one other person there. We said 'Hello'. It turned out he was an Iranian refugee with no money. He had written, when in Iran, for a magazine produced by the only Iranian I knew living in the UK. I offered him dinner, but there was money to spare, so first I took hime to hear some Iranian music; a concert that was visiting India. He got a blessing from the Master musician. I gave him my friend's address in London. Sometime later, passing through London, he visited my friend. He had got himself a job teaching Iranian at a Norwegian university. [I think this kind of coincidence could be caused by 'mindfield googling'. What do you think?

brake down

I broke down in southampton, rang the aa and they said they would be 20 minutes,30 minutes later they rang me to say the patrol man had been sent to the wrong area and would send someone else ,when he turned up he said he would have to tow me home ,when i told him that i live 20 miles away he said thats ok.i said the name of the village and he said i know were that is as his grandmother had lived 13 whitehaven. whitch is now my home,if the first aa man turned up we would not have met ,thats what i would call a coincidence.

Shock in Cleethorpes

My husband and I were travelling by car to visit an old friend in Hull. As we got up there earlier than expected we decided to go to Cleethorpes first, just to see what it was like. We parked the car on the promenade and decided to phone Margaret in Hull to see if she was in. I telephoned from a call box on the seafront, but there was no reply and no answerphone. We had a good walk along the front and had a bit of lunch to pass the time. On the way back to the car, as we passed the phonebox I went in to call again to see if she was back. As I entered the phonebooth the telephone rang and David said "pick it up then Rita", as I was hesitant to do so. When I picked up the phone it was my friend Margaret on the other end. She had dialled 1471 to see if anyone had called and then dialled the number. We were both absolutely "gobsmacked", in fact so much so that she did a lottery with the number - but unfortunately no luck!!

second world war

When I gave a talk in which the battle came up btween the Japanese and Dutch navy. I told the audience that the Dutch navy was more or less obliterated. Only 2 submarines survived. I said that one of those limped back to what was then Ceylon but I had no idea what hed happened to the other submarine. After my talk (which was open to anyone) someone came up to me and said I was the commander of the other submarine....I nealrly fell through the floor !!!

Surname coincidence

My mother was born in 1915. After her mother died she was fostered by a school friend of her mother and lived in Surrey. Her foster mother's maiden name was Charlton. I moved to Swindon in 1970 and married in 1974. My wife's parents were from the North East and moved to Swindon in the mid-sixties. My wife's mother's maiden name was Charlton.

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