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!

High Heels

When my daughter was about 7 we were out shopping and she took it into her head that she wanted to have some high heels. She would not let go of the idea and started having a tantrum, repeating over and over that she wanted some high heels, almost becoming hysterical. I eventually managed to calm her down, by which time she needed the loo. We went into the ladies where there, lying on the floor, were a pair of snapped off heels - someones shoes obviously having broken. She got her high heels after all and having taken them home they sat on her dressing table for years!

meeting an unknown wartime saviour

My father was in the first day landings of D-Day. As I recall, they set out in a group of 12 small boats together at night, but after many mishaps only two boats got there. As they eventually came into the shelter of the Cherbourg peninsula, a gun battery started to target them in the early morning. Then a single British plane came into view and managed to silence the guns. When my father was working in Singapore many decades afterwards, this story came up in conversation and one of the men present said 'I was the pilot'. I may not have every detail of the position etc correct (it's a long time since I heard it and my father is now dead), but the story is true and my father was convinced by the other man's account.

Teeth and the Green twins 1955

I took weekend leave from the Royal navy after having a double rooted & abcessed tooth removed by the dental surgeon at Lee on Solent. having arrived at my sister's to stay for a couple of days, my identical twin turned up from his RAF base up near Newcastle. I enquired the reason for him picking that particular weekend, and he informed me he had had a double rooted and abcessed tooth removed and needed a break from duties!! Steve Green

Chance meeting

I was working and living in Basel, Switzerland and had become friendly with a Scottish girl, Margo, who had recently moved to the area. We met up at a party, with our husbands, when Margo and my Scottish husband Bill, started talking. They did the usual, asking what part of Scotland they came from and it was "I come from near Glasgow" and, "Oh, I was brought up in Kirkintilloch" and then, "Really? I come from Lenzie"."Well, I also come from Lenzie but I didn't say, as most people haven't heard of it". "What street?" "Gallowhill Avenue". "What! We lived there too! What number?" " I can't remember the number but the Hendersons lived on one side". Bill looked poleaxed and the said "And you lived in next door to us, in the other half of our semi!" He didn't remember Margo (she was only 4 at the time, so off his radar) but he did remember their family dog and her brother, Billy.

three for the price of one

On 25th October 2011 I attended a philosophy lecture at Edinburgh University. The first slide gave the date as the 26th October. At the end of the lecture I had five minutes to kill before my bus so I popped into a charity bookshop. On a whim, I bought a copy of Wittgenstein’s Poker by David Edmonds and John Eidinow, which tells the story of a meeting which took place in 1946 on the 25th of October. So far, so 1 in 365ish, right? One of the protagonists in the argument which took place at the meeting claimed in his autobiography that the meeting had taken place on the 26th October. It was, in fact, the 26th October when I read of the error. So that’s three for the price of one on coincidences, then...

Making a Meteor!

It was a particularly starry night and I was walking with friends to the local pub (5 minute walk). We commented on how bright the stars were and I mentioned the brightest/longest lasting shooting star I'd ever seen. I pointed at the sky and traced a line, mimicking how it had slowly crossed the sky. Just as I'd finished my trace a shooting star appeared right where I'd pointed and followed pretty damn much the exact line I had just drawn in the air. This was probably the equal of the brightest/longest shooting star I'd ever seen, lasting a good while and being exceptionally bright. It was jaw dropping and totally mind blowing, none of us could believe it, and we still talk about it now, 5 years on, as being one of the weirdest coincidences we've ever had. We've always wondered just what the chance of it occurring was. I've seen plenty of shooting stars, but this was a pretty special one, it wasn't during a meteor shower (I tend to keep track of them), and it appeared in the sky and followed the path I had pointed out. I'd be intrigued to know how you could work the chances of something like that out. Good luck!

Shoe Story

At my school we had to do Greek dancing lessons every week which I was no good at and found boring. I was messing about with a friend of mine and got told off by the teacher and we both had to go and stand in front of the stage at the far end of the church hall as punishment. We were watching the teacher dancing around the hall with our classmates following her, copying her movements, and travelling at quite a pace. The teacher was wearing black tap shoes with a small one inch heel. I whispered to my friend "I wish the heel would come off one of her shoes and make her fall over" no sooner had I said this, a heel shot off her shoe sideways and caused her to stumble mid flight and land on the floor! My friend looked at me open mouthed and said "How on Earth did you manage that?" from Susan Tompkins

Weird or what?

I spent a lot of time building a small racing car based on an old Austin 7 in the early 60's, sold the vehicle and moved from my home in Wolverhampton to London. 18 months later decided to puchase a car via The Exchange and Mart magazine, arranged to view the car and turned up at the wrong address in Shropshire. The occupier thought I was a bit bonkers since he hadn't advertised a vehicle and hadn't arranged to see anyone! Eventually convinced it was a genuine mistake, on my departure, he mentioned in passing that he'd recently aquired an interesting car based on an old Austin 7!! Guess what, it was the car I had built...........................explain that!!

recounting a document

I wrote a planning-related dissertation for a university course in 1989. I also submitted a copy of that document at the same time to a local planning authority as supplementary information to a planning application I was making. No surprises there... This morning, in discussion with a local person, I recounted the brief story of that document and its content , for interest. We were talking about disused railway tracks and their use as footpaths and cycleways. This afternoon, I received a call from a planning officer asking if I remembered this same document, which had just come to light in his office whilst he was clearing back files. I was taken aback ! Within the short time of approximately five hours, today I have discussed this one document with two unrelated contacts, for two completely separate reasons, with no connections other than total coincidence. The last time I even mentioned this document to anyone was probably ten years ago.

Mr Tony M

During a business trip to New York some years ago I took a cab home from Wall Street in the evening rush to my hotel. Next morning after breakfast I hailed a cab in the rush hour to take me to the business district. One pulled over, it was the same cab and driver that I had the night before, I had not pre booked him. Tony Messenger.

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