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.

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Well I Never!

Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University wants to know about your coincidences!

Radio Coincidence

On 24 January 2012, I was looking at the King's College London website for details of a forthcoming conference. The first item I found was the news that a scholar with whose work I am familiar had been given a chair there. Having found the information I was seeking, I put my earphones on to listen to Radio 4 while carrying out a routine on-screen task. I caught the finish of an item in a programme called 'Questions, Questions', and learnt at the end that one of the discussants was the professor whose new post I had been reading about minutes before.

Coincidence Continents Apart

In 1980, I spent a weekend at a hotel in Long Melford, Suffolk, a town I had never visited before, and, during my stay, I had some friendly chats with a girl who was serving behind the bar. A week later, I had to visit Kano in Nigeria on business. I was met at the airport by a work colleague, and, as we were travelling into Kano, he suggested on the spur of the moment that we call at the home of a British expatriate he knew who worked as the local Inspector of Taxes. While chatting to the Inspector's wife, I asked where they lived in the UK. She replied, "Long Melford in Suffolk - do you know it?". She was astonished when I told her about my first visit to the town the previous week, and added that her daughter worked in a local hotel. Pointing to a framed photograph, she said, "That's her"; and it was the girl I had been chatting to in the bar (who had not told me anything about her parents).

Christening - Illness - Name

On Sunday 15th January 2012 I decided, on the spur of the moment to go to Church. It was to the Church where I was Christened. I`d taken my Baptism Certificate with me as I had been told that I could see the registration at sometime. I showed the certificate to a friend and she pointed out that I had been christened exactly 73 years earlier on 15th January 1939. Spooky eh. In 1960 my brother was very ill with sarcoidosis and about 10 years later my sister was diagnosed with the same thing. My brother died in 2001 and my sister died 2010 Lastly, to my surprise on seeing the name of Professor David Speigalhalter - one of my late relatives married a Herbert Speigalhalter but changed his name to Salter in the first World War

Birthdays

My father's birthday is 6/22/1911. He died 9/9/1980. I divorced in 1982 and started dating a man whose birthday was 6/22/1930. In 1987 I re-married another man whose birthday is 6/22/1052 after we divorced in 1994 I started dating another man whose birthday is 6/22/1952. I work for AT&T and after working there about 6 years I was in a team where I was being treated unfairly. A man whose birthday is 6/22/1952 helped me out. I mentioned my dad died on 9/9/1980 on 9/9/1998 one of my granddaughter's was born. I had a son who died at 15 months his birthday was 3/26/1972. In 1996 at age 51 was trying to leave teaching for a better job and at a High Tech Job Fair a man whose birthday is 3/26/1972 stooped me talked to me had me write some code and got me an interview with AT&T and I was offered a job.

Brooke Shields

I was talking with my fiance the other evening about films as were trying to work out what we had both seen. We were in the kitchen and the TV was playing to itself in the other room as we were having a last smoke before bed. We got onto ET and I mentioned that I thought that the young girl at school with Elliot reminded me a bit of Brooke Shields. We were both just wondering aloud what had happened to her as we hadn't seen her in anything for years, when we heard Jonathon Ross announcing his next guest which was...Brook Shields. Neither of us watch that show so hadn't a clue she would be on. We were both absolutely gobsmacked! Then the following day there was an article in my paper about this study. It may seem a small coincidence in the scheme of things and easily dismissed but we were both really blown away by it.

Birthday Wife

Met my wife when we were both in our mid-twenties. We worked in the same office - after going out a few times we found we shared the same birthday.

First date coincidence

For our first date my boyfriend (now husband) and I went to the cinema to see People under the Stairs. It was the 14 January 1992. 20 years later the same film was being shown on one of the movie channels on Sky, 14 January 2012. nb the release date of the movie was 1 nov 1991 so the tv airing didn't coincide with the anniversary of the release date. It coincided with the 20 year anniversary of our first date!

Picking all four aces

When playing soical bridge with friends we spread out the pack in an overlapping line of cards on the table and each tookj a card to see who would be dealer. All four of us picked an ace.

place of dreams

My daughter, as a gap year adventure, was hitch-hiking around Australia. One night, sleeping on a beach, she dreamt about me - a vivid and emotional dream that made a strong impression. She wrote to me about it, and the our corresponce initiated quite a significant transition in out relationship, helping to resolve a few old hurts. Along time later, looking at photos of her trip, I asked where was the place of her dream. She found a photo and showed me the place on a map. It was the same beach I has slept on maybe a decade before; comparing notes it could even have been under the same tree. She knew nothing of that episode in my life. Part of the pleasure in this story of coincidence is the entirely positive nature of its consequences.

Avignon clutch capers

During the summer of '89, my band toured France in a 1971 Leyland Tiger Cub coach. Having successfully busked our way around Brittany, the lure of playing in Provence found us heading south, where the clutch-plate decided to give out just on the industrial outskirts of Avignon. In a country where the sight of any British vehicle is rare, we despaired of getting ourselves back without getting ourselves deliberately deported. For the next few days the band busked for our bread, and, being unable to find ground suitable to set our tents upon, we slept in abandoned dumper trucks. Anyone not directly involved in musical duties scouted around for the elusive clutch-plate, going as far as Marseilles - all, need I add, without success. Eventually, one of us suggested we try the scrap-yard we had broken down outside. The owner bade us follow him to his little shed-cum-office, where he kept hundreds of parts, neatly done up in jiffy bags. After some rooting around, he triumphantly produced a bag labelled 'Leyland Tiger Cub - 1971'!

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