Cambridge Coincidences Collection

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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!

Same dream

I shared a flat in Hannover with a good friend 25 years ago. One evening we were both sat having a drink in the local corner bar when a man entered, approached the bar and started chatting with the barmaid. We both recognised him from somewhere but couldn't immediately place him. It then dawned on me that he'd been in my dream the previous night. I recounted the dream to my friend. In the dream the man had been hostile to me in the bar so I had left. Outside was a car waiting for me with the door open. I stepped in and the car began to drive itself without a driver at the controls. The windows were misty but as they cleared I saw I was driving along a road with a hill to the right and a drop to the left. After a while the car pulled off the road and stopped at a farmhouse where a woman was standing at the doorway. The strange thing was as I recounted this dream my friend filled in parts as he had had exactly the same dream on the same night! The only difference was that in his dream the man at the bar had been friendly and the woman at the house had been violent to him, causing him to wake up. My friend now lives in Holland and I live in England.

Mrs

I have two coincidences for you. 1. I grew up near Glasgow and when I was in my twenties I went to live in the Shetland Islands. One evening during dinner in a hotel in a remote part of Shetland the conversation turned to curly hair. I remembered a girl I had been friendly with at school whose hair was so curly she was teased about it and wondered what she was doing as we had completely lost touch . We finished our meal and as we walked into the hotel foyer my friend Fiona was standing there. Not only that - she was the chef who had just cooked our meal. 2. My husband and I were on a walking holiday in the Lake District, we had set off from our cottage to climb a hill, the weather was good so we got a bit carried away and did a second hill. By the time we'd finished it was getting dark and we were quite a long way from where we were staying so decided to hitch a lift It was a quiet road but we stuck out our thumbs and the first car to come along stopped. The driver turned out to be an old university friend and flatmate of my husband, someone he hadn't seen in years. We got a lift right to the door!

debski

im from birmingham, i hadnt seen my step brother for about 18 months, he worked at gatwick airport, so as a surprise i went there but when i got there, the staff told me he was on holiday,so that evening i came back to birmingham, i went to a nightclub where i worked, and there he was sitting at the bar, he'd came to birmingham to visit me

The car park

Three of us were seconded (with families) to Australia in 1990 for a contract in Sydney. The company there provided three white Toyota Corrolas, with sequential numbers. We lived in Frenchs Forest, and the nearest main supermarket was in Warringah Mall. There was a large department store and a multi-storey car park with about 5 levels. One day, one of the others with his wife had been shopping and returned to the car. Their key didn't work the lock, and after some trying, they realised that the things in the car, like baby seats, weren't theirs. On investigation, they realised that this was our third colleague's car. They were wrongly on level 2, but had parked their car in exactly the same position on level 3.

Matching number

We have a gadget at work used to dial into the company network remotely. For security, you have to put a pin (number) into this gadget, which then generates a 6-digit number. You then enter this number into your laptop and are allowed to log in. Often i have felt that the numbers are not quite random 6-digit numbers, as there are repeated digits or combinations in them. However the one that really surprised me was when 842813 came up - for this is my home phone number. I know the odds are 1 in a million, but it is still a surprise to actually see it.

question answered without being asked

On holiday in Malta my wife and I took a boat tour round Valetta Grand Harbour. Disembarking we walked some thirty yards towards outdoor cafe tables.All were fully occupied.I said "I think the last time we did a tour round boat trip like this was to Looe Island"(We live some 10 miles from Looe Island,Cornwall) This is quite pricy,I wonder how it compares with current Looe prices?" As we reached the tables two people stood up,said were off have these. One said "Enjoy the trip?" ""Yes but a bit expensive" " I know said he-I run trips round Looe Island in Cornwall and think I shall have to put my prices up-Im much too cheap" We established we lived close but had never met,so we had our answer from one of the few men in the world who could give it without putting the question to him-weird!! This happened some 25 years ago,-Ive thought about it over the years but can see no explanation beyond sheer coincidence.

Family coincidences

My birthdate - 8.2.46 My daughter, Louise's birthdate - 8.9.72 (I was 26 yrs 7 mnths) My daughter died - 6.4.99 (She was 26 yrs 7 mnths) My eldest son married Sara whose birthday is 8th September My youngest son married a girl whose name is Louise My stepdaughter married a man whose birthdate is 8.9.72 same as my daughter's

Meeting the Dutch cyclists

On August 29th 2010, we were camping at Skogafoss, in southern Iceland. A party of four Dutch cyclists arrived and pitched their tents. We all moved on the next day, and we passed them as they cycled up a very rough side road to a gorge. That evening we again camped at the same site as them and chatted in the common room where they shared their carrot cake with the other campers. The group consisted of the parents with their two teenage daughters. On the third day they were due to catch a bus into Reykjavik ready for their flight home, but we met again at a service area where they were waiting for their bus. On July 29th 2011, we were staying at the Camping and Caravanning Club site at Ashbourne, Derbyshire. A group of four cycle campers arrived and I commented to my husband that the bikes looked Dutch. They were - it was the same family that we had met the year before in Iceland.

Born in the same place

My son was living in London over ten years ago and he was sitting chatting with friends when they introduced him to a friend of theirs they began to chat and my son mentioned he came from Surrey so did this guy then they discovered they were born in the same hospital on the same day in Surrey they probably spent the first day of their life in the same room.

working on the same job miles away

My husband and I were holidaying in St Lucia in 1998 when a tropical shower caused us to take cover under the shelter of the pool bar another two couples were standing next to us we started chatting and after a while some how work was discussed one of the men worked for the Royal Navy and was handling the finances of a job "The Devonport dockyard" this was the job that my husband who worked in structural engineering was working on in Surrey. We coudn't believe it you couldn't make it up.

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