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!

address curb painting

One day I was thinking that I wish I had hired some guys several years back to paint my address numbers on the curb like some of my other neighbors had done. At the time I couldn't afford it and I had just had a visitor come after sunset who found it hard to figure out which house was mine. The very next day I had the guy knock on my door and I hired him to paint the numbers on my curb!

Same birthdays

I was working on a project with some external suppliers and at our initial meeting, I pointed out it was my birthday. The project manager pointed out it was her birthday and then another member of the meeting said it was his. In fact he was exactly the same age as myself. There were 6-7 people at the meeting.

It's a small world

I was newly retired from my position as Medical Secretary at a GP Practice in a small town in the South West of England. In November, 2007, my husband and I travelled to New Zealand where we hired a motorhome in order to see as much of the country as possible in the three weeks we had allowed. We had a wonderful time, went to magical places and enjoyed the relaxing mode of travel. However, we hadn't taken into account the vast size of the country and, not wanting to spoil our trip by rushing, only managed to cover the North Island but promised ourselves we would return at a later date and tour South Island. We sadly handed over the motorhome and spent our last night at an airport hotel in Auckland. Transport had been arranged to take us to the airport in the morning to catch our flight. The next morning, there were a lot of people waiting for the transit coach in the Hotel Forecourt and we found ourselves standing alongside another couple with whom we exchanged pleasantries. The man asked if we were starting our holiday and we replied that we were at the end of a very nice visit to New Zealand and were going home to the UK via Hong Kong.

Artemis the dog

I was once playing with a frisbee with my daughter and her boyfriend in the park. A dog came and joined us and sat very quietly until someone missed the frisbee, then the dog would run and pick it up and bring it back. Delightful. We all got on very well. When the owner of the dog came to collect him I said how charming he was asked his name. 'Artemis' He said. We all said what an unusual name it was, in fact I hadn't heard it before as a male name, but only as the obvious ancient Greek name for a Goddess. We then went home for a cup of tea. As I walked through the door the telephone was ringing and I answered it to my son. 'Congratulations Dad' he said, 'You're a Grandfather again. It's a boy and we're going to call him Artemis!'

Born in the same room

I was born in 1948 in a private nursing home in a welsh village, Crickhowell, Breconshire. In 1973 I was living in a house in Morden, Surrey and we had decided to move. We held a 'House Leaving' party to introduce the new owners of our house to the neighbours. The couple buying our house were going to have a lodger and he came along to the party. The subject of where we were born came up in conversation and I said I had been born in Wales and the 'lodger' said he too had been born in Wales. Further into the conversation in transpired that the 'lodger' had also been born in a private nursing home in Crickhowell and I mentioned that my mother's room had overlooked the local cricket ground. It was the only room that overlooked the cricket ground and the 'lodger' declared that he too was born in this room. We were both stunned at this coincidence...

reunited and a matched experience

The two most significant coincidences in my life date back to 1966. 1 My father was dying of cancer. He was an Irishman, living in Bristol since the war, and he had been out of touch with his family for more than 20 years. He received a letter from a sister who said that she was not sure if he was her brother but that her son was about to start at Bristol university and because that was were she had last heard where my father was living they had looked in Kelly's street directory and found the only person with his name and initial living in the city. Hence the letter. As a result my father met 7 of his eight surviving siblings in the 4 months before his death. 2 I was a student at teacher training college in Leeds in 1966. One sunday morning I was in the bath when the police arrived to tell me the not unexpected news that my father had died. We were not on the phone at home and neither were any of our neighbours. I caught a train from Leeds at about mid day not clear how long it would take me to get home because of engineering works on the line and I was relying on the police to let my mother know I was on my way.

What's that entry in the Death Register?

My Father died back in August 1998, and his name was Stanley Round. His entry in the Death Register necessarily would be S Round. Several days after he died (in hospital), I took my Mother to the appropriate office in Lincoln, to register the death, with the appropriate documentation. Apparently, at that time, a single book was used to register deaths, but as there were several offices in the building that were used to register deaths, the book was moved between the offices, as and when the necessary details were needed to be added. My Mother and I were called into the office, to a man sitting at a desk, and he had the death register already open in front of himself. He asked who we were, our business, and then asked for our documentation.

Rhodesia schoolfriends /Suffolk daughters connection

I hope you will enjoy my coincidence story. I could not believe it when I found out the connection. In the late sixties I went to a boarding school in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), the school was called Arundel. I left Africa in 1973, came to live in England, married and had children, loosing most connections with Rhodesia. 3 years ago my daughter married an Apache pilot and went to live in a Forces married quarter in Suffolk. Last year a newly married couple moved into the quarter next door to them, the husband was also an Apache pilot and works with my son in law. I later discovered that the young wife turned out to be the daughter of a girl who was in the same class as me at Arundel School in Africa all those years ago. She looks just how I remember her Mum! Jackie

aquaintances

Returning to the UK by plane on leave from the Department of Epidemiolpogy at Otago University (with which Prof Spiegelhalter had associations) I sat next to someone who knew a university friend of mine. We continued our conversation when, coincidentally, we sat next to each other on a flight the following year. While my travel arrangements were quite regular (to the same week or so each year) his were not.

Three of a kind

I joined a company, Newtime Foods, on the 1st December 1980 in the Sales Department, which consisted of 8 people including myself. One of the first things that I was told was that I would be expected to be on duty during some part of the period between Christmas Day and New Years Day as there was a special service to our customers for their stocking up after the Christmas rush. I was happy to agree but I expressed the hope to a colleague that I could be excused 29th December for the rota as it was my birthday. He replied that he could not agree to that as it was his birthday and he was senior to me. After I had absorbed this, he said that even if it hadn't been his birthday, I still couldn't have it because our top manager also had the same birthday. Three of us in a department of 8. Unusual to say the least.

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