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!

Pregnancy coincidence.

Two years ago I was in the early stages of pregnancy, anxiously awaiting test results which would confirm the baby would be healthy, having previously lost a baby. Whilst shopping one day, near to the time my results were due, I was driving around a busy car park, looking for an available space, when I saw a gap ahead, as I reversed my car into the space I saw something laying on the ground, when I got out to look there was a pink baby blanket lying in this parking space. The following week, I received my test results, confirming I was expecting a healthy baby girl. Also during this time, my mum, who was very anxious on my behalf, was searching through a pile of birthday cards, when one fell face down to the floor. As she picked it up, she saw it was birth congratulations card, for a baby girl.

Hello Australia? Is Winston There Please?

When I was a teenager, my friend Jay moved into an apartment where the previous occupant had not arranged to have the phone discontinued. Being the imps that we were, we thought: free long-distance calls! We were in Canada. The only person we could think to call was someone Jay used to know named Winston. We did not know Winston's last name. Winston had moved to somewhere in Australia a year or two earlier and had not contacted Jay since then. So, we phoned directory assistance, randomly selecting Sydney, Australia and when the operator answered, Jay said, 'I'd like to speak with Winston please.' So cheeky! The operator said, 'One moment please.' and put the call on hold. We laughed thinking we had probably annoyed her and we would be on hold forever. A few moments later, a man comes on the line: 'Winston speaking.' Yes, it was the same Winston. He had moved to Sydney and got a job with the telephone company! What are the odds of choosing the right city, getting an operator knew him, and calling when he was on his shift? After all these years, this is still the very funniest coincidence I have ever experienced.

A Bird In the Hand

Back in the 1980's, I placed a classified ad in the paper, hoping to find a boyfriend. I arranged to meet one respondent at a park. I rode my bike about 10 miles to the park. When I was locking my bike to a tree near the prearranged meeting area, I heard a man call my name. I turned to look, and, assuming it was my respondent, and I put out my hand to wave hello. Just then a baby bird fell from a nest up in the tree and landed perfectly in my hand. The person who called my name was actually calling someone else in the park. My respondent then came up to me and we met for the first time. I still had the bird in my hand. Realizing it was dead, I put it down by the tree as we made awkward small talk. I could tell by the way my respondent looked at me that I was not his type. After that I used to joke to myself, a bird in the hand is worth nothing if it's dead!

Synchronism

Over the years i've recorded in a little black book the many times when i've had the interesting simultaneous occurance whereby, when reading something, i hear the exact same word or phrase being spoken on the radio or TV. I began to to call them synchronisms and have recorded so many i've stopped doing so. A mathemitician from the Chronicle Herald told me that it was just a trick of the mind whereby, we percieve what appears to be a novel occurance of something in the midst of millions of random unnoticed events. Since i like to read while listening to CBC talk radio i seem to notice these events more frequently. What i also notice is that when discussing these synchronistic events with friends and family, that they too began to report noticing them.

name coincidence - real life imitating fiction

Over 50 years ago, when I was about 9 years old, my uncle gave me, Ruth Haley, a copy of Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. It was inscribed "To Ruth, or should I say Nancy !". When asked to explain what this meant, my uncle merely told me to read the book. I found that the leader of the Amazons was called Ruth Blackett, but she disliked the name so she called herself Nancy instead. Some 15 years later I married David Blackett, thereby becoming Ruth Blackett. ( But I've never felt the urge to call myself Nancy ! )

Underground meeting

My cousin is retired and he and his wife live in a little village in Somerset. My cousin goes to London from time to time. I am retired and my wife and I live in the countryside in Morayshire about 600 miles by road from my cousin. We go to London about twice a year, for a maximum of two nights. My wife had an appointment in NW8, otherwise we would not normally be in that area of London. Afterwards we went to the St John's Wood Underground Station where one has to take a lift down to the platforms, so there can be short delays awaiting the lift. I believe the trains run about every five minutes. We had been waiting a few minutes when from the lift appeared my cousin. We had no idea eachother were in London, and normally only meet at family funerals, perhaps at three yearly intervals (though sadly that may increase at our ages!). I have often wondered what the odds were of us meeting, but I guess many millions to one?

birthday coincidence

My mother, Dorothy Wordley, her brother, Ronald, and her sister, Molly, were all born on 4th August, but in different years - 1902, 1906 and 1909 respectively. My mother told me that her sister was not due until sometime afterwards, but somebody said to their mother on the morning of 4th August: "You know what is expected of you today" and she promptly did it. Elizabeth

Unexpected meetings - France, Cornwall, Vets Surgery.

My husband,me and my son and his friend where travelling through France down to Spain. My brother in law and his wife where also driving through France to their house in Provence. We left the day before them and we had also stopped overnight in Dijon. As we where going along we all wondered where they where on the Autoroute, low and behold just in front of us was a red Audi, my husband said it would be funny if it was them, we got along side and it was them. We all pulled into a rest area to remark on the coincidence. In 2010 we where on hoiday in Cornwall, and we have friends in Falmouth so wanted to visit them, but I knew they had moved house but they had not forwarded their new address. We decided to go to Falmouth anyway, as we drove into Falmouth we saw a silver 4x4 in front of us again we said that looks like the car they had when we last saw them 4 years earlier.

Holiday coincidence

30 years ago our family were going on holiday towing a caravan, we stopped at a motorway service station and chatted to the people parked next to us also towing a caravan.Two weeks later we stopped at a different services on our way home and to our amazment we parked next to the same people we had talked to the fortnight before.

Alan Titchmarsh Cupboard Rant

Whilst listening to Radio 4 in 2011, I heard a talk show on which Alan Titchmarsh bemoaned the loss of traditional practical skills in society. "When was the last time you built a cupboard?" he asked rhetorically. At that very moment I was building a cupboard. (I'm not a carpenter! This was the only cupboard I've ever made).

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