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!

Spear carrier

I spoke today to an old teacher of mine, Ron, now in his late 70s. He said he came to the school in 1969. One of the older colleagues who taught games had arrived in the 50s and in idle staffroom chat mentioned that he had once been supervising athletics when a boy caught a javelin in his leg. He had to transport him to hospital with the javelin sticking out of the car window. In the late nineties Ron was on a train and fell into conversation with an older man who, it transpired had been a pupil at the same school 40 years earlier. Ron asked whether there was any truth in the javelin tale. The answer he received was: "I threw it."

Randomly finding old roommates credit card at gas station 90 minutes away

Yesterday on my drive back to Chicago from Michigan I stopped to use the restroom and get gas at a random gas station near Indiana . As I went to put my card in I noticed someone else’s card was left in there so I took it out to take it inside and something told me to look at the name . When I looked at it I couldn’t believe it was my old roommate from colleges card ! I called him and asked if he was still in Chicago and he said no he was on his way back to Michigan and I asked if he had stopped to get gas near Indiana and he said yes about an hour before . Come to find out he had left his card in there and didn’t even realize and some how I went to the same exact pump and was the one to find it ! How odd is that ! We hadn’t talked in months and it’s just so weird ! Then when I was in Florida last month I had asked to speak to the manager at the resort because of an issue I had and it was literally his best friend who I had no clue had even moved to Florida let alone was the manager of the resort my work conference was at !!!! What is going on !!!

Small group of 10

At a small course of only 10 people run by the U3A, by chance two members discovered that they were born in the same room! This was in Brocket Hall. At the same course two people also realised they had gone to the same school, which was over 100 miles from where they both lived now.

Missed a train abroad and ran into someone I knew of, but didn't know personally

My husband and I were traveling through Russia on the Transiberian train. My father had mentioned in conversation that his best friend's sister and her husband were also traveling through Russia at the time and shared a picture of them. We had never met them before and with Russia being a huge country, we didn't think much of it. At some point in our journey, we missed a train and had to book last minute tickets on another train at a later hour. There was only one cabin with two free tickets left, so we booked there. We caught this train on time and went to our cabin. As soon as the couple we were sharing the cabin with walked in, I recognized them from the picture my father had sent me. Much to their surprise, we asked them if they were who we thought they were and we introduced ourselves after explaining the situation. We still can't believe how many coincidences were involved for this to happen.

Two Nutria Encounters

Went to the library, did some browsing, and selected a book to take with me on a business trip. Can't recall the title, but it was probably something in the action/adventure genre. On the plane, it caught my eye that the book mentioned an animal called a nutria. I had to pause for a second, but then remembered that it's a sort of swimming rat. I was pleased that I was able to recall that. Got to my destination (a university in south Texas) and my contact picked me up at the airport and took me out to dinner. Sitting on the outdoor deck as we ate our meal, I scanned our surroundings and something in a river that winded its way around the restaurant caught my eye. "You know what those are?" he asked. Before I could answer, he said, "They're called nutria. They have them where you're from?" I probably hadn't heard the name "nutria" for a decade or more prior to reading it in that book (I'm guessing junior high or high school) and then I heard it twice in one day, including seeing one of the little bastards!

same bowlegged jeep in front of me twice

driving south on a highway in Detroit in the evening I notice a green jeep with bowlegged tires in front of me I commented that it must have been in an accident and i pull alongside it to confirm and notice the dings and the driver, the next morning I see the same jeep in front of me eastbound in the morning so I pull alongside to confirm the same jeep

Sister Died

It was Christmas day back at around 2005. It was mid afternoon and we were getting organised to get my wife's grandmother (who is called 'Nana" in the family) back home. Nana was ushered upstairs to go to the toilet before the car journey back to her home. I also needed to go to the loo, but of course allowed Nana to go in first. As soon as she came out, I went into the loo. It was the tiniest loo possible - probably three feet wide, and just long enough to fit the toilet at the end so that the door could open and close. In other words, a very small loo! As I was having my wee I had a sudden and persistent thought running through my head. It wasn't a 'voice' but it was that kind of persistent self-talk we do when we repeat something in our heads like "don't forget to set the alarm" when leaving to go on holiday. The words that were repeating in my head were "sister's died, sister's died". This was just after 3pm on Christmas Day. I went back downstairs and told my wife about this. I asked her (sensitive of me, really) if at some point if she had a sister who had died.

3 children with the same birth date

My daughter Ally was born 14.11.2000 My twins were born naturally on 14.11. 2013 For our family it's a cool coincidence.

Just weird coincidences and freaked out by too many!!!

I met this girl through work we became friends (I’m married but we connected)<br /> 1 I saw her surname on the back of a temporary roadworks sign.<br /> 2 her parents wedding anniversary is the same date as mine.<br /> 3 her Facebook name code has the year I was born in it. Ie v****h***71<br /> 4 I got in the car one Saturday morning to go to work, I don’t normally work Saturdays, I turned the radio on and she was on the radio on a phone in call.<br /> 5 we both got a puncture on our vans on the same day.<br /> 6 we have posted status updates at the same time on Facebook.<br /> 7 I saw a poster with the same name as hers with the eyes highlighted in blue of the photo of queen Victoria ( her name is Vicky) ( she has deep piercing blue eyes)

Comment event and time matched

Listened to Robin Ince interviewing Claudia Hammond on the Book Shambles podcast. Claudia talks about going to an 0840 GP appointment and the GP having already seen 7 people already. I was, at that moment, locking up my bike so I could check in for my own 0840 GP appointment. I had no idea they were going to raise that concept when I had downloaded the podcast that morning. The coincidence raised a smile. Claudia Hammond liked my tweet about it, but the GP didn't seem bothered...

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