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!

Some special meetings

1. In the early eighties when my wife and I were teaching at Hebron University on the West Bank and living in Wales during the summer vacation, a colleague from the same university phoned us at home and asked if we would like to meet in London this same day; after which we could all three travel together to the airport to get our plane back to Tel Aviv Airport, and from there, the train back to Hebron. As all the complications of breaking our journey in London, seemed quite pointless- even for a drink- we declined the offer, and hours later took the train out of Oswestry. We changed trains at Wolverhampton, if I remember correctly, and a few hours later arrived in London and took the tube to London Airport. After stopping at a number of stations we arrived at one- the name I cannot remember- the same friend, Jeremy, sho had phoned us earlier suggesting we rendezvous, stepped from the platform bumping into me as he got on. This coincidence always impressed me because it would never have been possible to even plan this meeting at the time: no cell phones, what have you. 2. In 1966, we said goodbye to, Lyn, one of my architectural colleagues at the time.

Telephone misdial

A few years ago I was working in a friends house when the telephone rang. My friend picked up the phone ,listened, then,bemusedly handed it to me saying " I think it's for you but they want to talk to Belinda '' ( Belinda is my wife's name ). Rather surprised at this I took the phone, said hello, the lady on the other said is that George Coles, which indeed is my name so I replied hesistantly yes. She then went on to say she was from an agency trying to contact on of their secretary temps working for me by the name of Belinda. I pointed out to her I am a carpenter and joiner by trade and not in the habit of employing temporary office staff. She then said so your not George Coles the solicitor then (who are a well known legal firm in our town ) , I replied no but it was a remarkable coincidence she had got through to someone sharing the same name. After having put the phone down I checked the telephone number for the solicitors, the lady from the agency had misdialed the last digit and ended up with me.

meeting in Laos

I am 74 and last Jan went to Laos/Vietnam with a friend. We entered Laos form Thailand by crossing a river on a very perilous skiff at a place called Huay Sai and there we were to pick up our visas. The border office was really primitive and was heaving with tourists of all nationalities, many of them back packers, though very few English. We were seated in a small room, asked to hand over passports which were taken away and presented with a form to fill in with details of passport etc. My friend and I were naturally in conversation as we were a bit anxious as to what would happen next. Another couple on the other side of the room heard us and asked were we English, as were they. They asked where from and we replied Bath. They then said that I didn't sound as though I came from Bath and indeed I am a Lancastrian. "So are we" they replied. When I told them my home had been Warrington they amazed me by saying that that was where they lived. That in itself was some coincidence but it got more intriguing. They told me their address and it turned out to be the next avenue to where I had lived!

Cambridge coincidences

Coincidences have been an intermittently lively topic between two Cambridge graduates over the years. I remark on them; my wife wonders about the ones we don't know about. So here are some examples. I left the army to take up my Cambridge place in 1958, but two years later, while visiting a friend, he took me to Chipping Camden for the afternoon. There I encountered one of my former messmates from our regiment in Hong Kong who was simply making a one-day walking trip to the Cotswolds. A coincidence, to be sure, but enhanced by a shout from a rooftop where a third member of that not large mess hailed us as he was fixing an aerial to his chimney: someone with whom I was no longer in contact and of whose whereabouts I had been ignorant. My wife, Hilary and I, with our two young daughters, were sitting at a table in a crowded cafeteria in the University of Nsukka in 1972. I was there to give a lecture but the cafeteria was crowded with conference delegates and we were lucky to grab seats on the last available table. So we were not put out when an American lady with her young daughter asked if they could occupy two of the remaining few places.

words

I am a great reader and I also have radio 4 on most of the time. Many, many times I have found myself reading a word which is simultaneously being used on the radio. I have given up keeping a record of this but it must happen at least twice a week. The words are not carrier (?) words but nouns, verbs, etc. and sometimes quite unusual. This morning, for example, I was reading the word 'witness' when I heard it simultaneously on the radio. I would love to know if anyone else has had this experience and also whether you regard this as an example of a coincidence or some other phenomenon.

restaurant meetings

My neighbour a Mr Bob Flux- Sales Director for NEI Parsons was assigned to the USA for a year and rented his house in Epsom Downs to an American couple Mr & Mrs Basler- the European Sales Director for Bell Helicopters. Just prior to Xmas the Baslers went for a meal to a restaurant in Wimbledon where they had a great evening. A week or so later the Flux's came to Southampton to spend Xmas with relatives, and they went to a nice restaurant.During the course of the evening they talked to a couple on the next table and mentioned that they were on vacation having rented their house in Epsom Downs to an American couple. "What a coincidence. We were in a restaurant in Wimbledon last week and got talking to two Americans in England on an assignment." They then produced a photograph of- you've guessed it- the Baslers.

TWO FEATHERS

During the last few years of his life my father and I got quite close and I used to say to him would he let me know if there was something beyond death if he could. He thought I was mad and said when you are dead that is it. When my father died last year I was obviously devastated. My brother came up from Great Yarmouth and we were sorting a few things out in my father's house a few days before the funeral. My brother decided he would go outside for a cigarette while I was making a coffee. For some unknown reason I went to his side before he opened the door and there on the doormat outside was two feathers, identical in shape and size, placed side by side in the direct centre of the mat. I said to my brother did he know what that meant (which he didn't) but I said it is supposed to be a sign that the angels have been and everything is ok. I had read something years ago. He thought it was incredible that they were so centrally placed side by side and we were standing side by side and they did not blow away. I picked up the feathers and kept them close. I then remembered the conversation I had had with dad a few years earlier.

Birth coincidence

My father died before my baby was born and as Dad and I had been so close I was desperate to have a little boy and to give him Dad's name. The baby was due at the end of October and despite having my 4 previous babies more or less on their exact due date, this baby came very early - in September. He was the little boy I had longed for and I did name him after my Dad.The hospital kept us in a few days and decided to send us home on September 28. That was the anniversary of my Dads death. I felt he had come home with us on that very unexpected date.

Strange meeting

I took my children to Germany during the half term holiday of my son's new school. As it was raining we decided to drive to a town further away to see if the weather was better. It was still raining so we went inside an Ice Cream parlour (something I would never normally do). The waiter was Indian but he recognised our English voices and told us his wife and children were in England. He said they were in Birmingham (where we live too) Then he said his twin sons had just started a new school. Lo and behold - they were at the same school as my son, and in the same class as him too!! Another time my daughter was on a school trip to Spain. Someone recognised her English voice and said he used to live in England. Not just England but Birmingham (where we live) Then he said the suburb - yes we live there too!. It turned out he had actually lived in our house many years before!

Duke of Monmouth

I was at the Genealogical Society HQ investigating a family story that said Lucy Walters was an antecedent. She [I have now deleted the rest of this story because I do not wish my name to go forward, however, you may like to read what is written below.] You will not be able to find an explanation for coincidence until you grasp the nettle of fourth dimension physics. The world is not 3D, it is a creation of our own minds. As Bishop Berkeley said over 200 years ago, "All reality is illusion". Western orthodox physics is in error.

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