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!

Reunited

I am a clockmaker,who volunteered at a school.A chance meeting with an ex headteacher, he brought me an English silver pair cased verge watch.I told him the outer case was missing but thought I had one that may fit,and sure enough I had. when I compared the makers mark and hallmarks they were identical. When i came to clean them the name Manley was scratched inside both. He said Manley was his wifes maiden name ,they had owned the watch for some 50 years. They came from London, I live in Maidstone, I bought the scrap case from the effects of a deceased watchmaker in Chatham,So the are now reunited. What are the chances of that. I do have photo's.

having a child

When my daughter was at nursery school in London, she shared a birthday party with a little boy the same age as her, because his birthday was a day before hers. Whilst preparing for the party, I was moaning to his mother that I had only just celebrated my husband's birthday three days before my daughter's. She commented that her own birthday was three days before her son's. On comparing notes we found that she was the same age as my husband - and had been born in the same town in Surrey - and had been born at the same hospital just one day apart - and we had both had our first children one day apart too. Stupidly I never asked which hospital her son was born in to complete the coincidence.

Instant replay!

I have contributed already but I thought that I would relate something which has just happened as I was watching BBC Breakfast, which I record on Sky+. This was the first round of news from 6:00, not a repeat later in the programme, so I know that I was not prompted by anything I heard. As Steph was relating the business news, my mind wandered a bit to the fact that this is a very sad few days. My dad died on Jan 18th 1985, one of my nephews on Jan 21st 1995, and my mum on Jan 20th 2005 (and incidentally if I may digress I am a bit worried about 19th Jan 2015!). I was then thinking that my lovely father-in-law died on March 20th in 2009, when a couple of seconds later Steph, talking about Greece's Euro loan, announced that it was due to be settled on March 20th. And, incidentally, just as I was reading this for errors and my eye fell on '20', a presenter said the number 20 in a totally unrelated report. Is someone out there trying to tell us something? Clues to a dimension we are currently oblivious to?

Second meeting with Portland woman

12 years ago, I met a girl in Oregon, in an internet cafe. She was looking up the same university I attended. I told her about it, we chatted for a while, and swamped email addresses. I think we kept in touch briefly, but nothing ensued. I had no idea if she ever moved to the UK to study. Still, I never forgot her. 2 years later, I bumped into said girl in South London. She was leaving a vegetarian/health food cafe/restaurant in Clapham, heading for a bus stop. I did a double-take, enquired to the cafe's proprietor that her name was indeed Sarah!, and walked up to her - she was amazed to see me. Sadly, she was living with a boyfriend - sucks, right? - so there was no subsequent date, but she promised to keep in touch! She had indeed moved to UK, but not to said university. She happened to be living in a town 10 miles from where I lived and one which I was visiting. 24 hours later (but no contact between...I was resigned to never seeing her again), I was driving through an area in London 3 miles away, and both her and her boyfriend were crossing the road. i stopped for them, and hooted. The look she gave me.... we since kept in touch, but she moved back to the US.

Castelsagrat

Some 12 years ago we were staying with friends in a privately owned chateau by the medieval walled village of Castelsagrat in the south of France. To celebrate my birthday our friends took us for dinner in the cafe restaurant in the village. There were two other parties present: one included 'Miss Fareham' the year my wife was Mayor of Fareham some 18 years earlier; the other party included someone who had been in the Royal Navy with me. Ewen P

Jacques Chirac

A few days ago, I began to wonder what had happened to Jacques Chirac, who was on trial for being liberal with public funds. I had heard nothing about the story for weeks. Later that day, I turned on the radio for the news and heard that he'd been found guilty and sentenced.

Old age - twice!

This Thursday morning I received in the post an application form for my retirement pension, which I completed and returned. In the evening, I heard from a friend who had told a television producer about me as a possible participant in a program about experiences of old age.

Unexpected Meetings

Over 15 yrs. ago I was holidaying in Yorkshire, near Malton, in my caravan. On a tour of the area, I saw the sign for Wharrem Percy - Deserted Medieval Village and decided to visit it. I parked the car investigated the site and took the longer route back to the car park. As I reached the style to enter the car parking area I stood back to let the person coming from the car park negotiate the style. I was fabbergasted to realise it was my best friend. She had been on holiday In Scarborough and had decided to visit the site on her way home to Barnsley. If I had returned to my car by the shortest route I would probably have missed her; this was the only spot where the direct route and the longer route round the site crossed. We were both so shocked to see each other we were almost speechless. I live in Durham so we usually have to arrange to see each other. About five years ago we unexpectedly met each other in Ilkley, Yorkshire. This was the town where we met each other originally when we were at college there. She had come for "a day out" and I was on holiday nearby and had done the same. We had not made arrangements to meet up.

Time piece

I found this interesting at the time and wrote it down but at the moment can't find it and as I don't know when the website will be packed up I will tell the story from memory, though I know I have it detailed and much more accurately written somewhere if anyone's interested. It is also pages longer than I tell it here. I have hitch hiked since I was 14. I was picked up about 20 years ago by an elderly man in a white van who lived in Hastings. This is it: The man's mother had been given a fob watch for her birthday around the beginning of the First World War. She married a man soon afterwards. Her husband went to fight in the trenches and very sadly he was killed in the trenches. The lady married again some years later to a man who had also fought in the trenches. He also had a fob watch. He had been given it by someone in the trenches, the number inside the watch was the next number in sequence to the one that his wife owned.

Chance meeting in a fog.

One night in November, in the early sixties, Belfast and the surrounding area was blanketed in thick fog. About 7.30 that night I was queueing for a bus in the city centre to take me to my home in Dudonald, a suburb five miles from Belfast city centre. A bus company inspector came along and informed the queue that, due to the fog, buses would not be operating in the city centre that night. There is a rural bus company which operates from Belfast and has a service which passes through Dundonald. I decided to walk to their Belfast station, which was about half a mile away. I mentioned this to another man beside me in the queue. He said "I live in Dundonald too.....I will go with you". On arrival at this station there was a queue for our bus, so we joined it. The fog became thicker, and soon a bus inspector informed us, "No more buses will be leaving this station tonight". Since Dundonald is only five miles away the pair of us decided to walk there. Another man in the queue overheard us and said "I live in Dundonald too so I will join you". Off we went into the fog: three complete strangers together.

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