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!

Meeting at the Races

I had been clearing out my fathers house following his passing and had all sorts of stuff in the boot of the car and when I sorted it out I put back in the boot of my car my dads binoculars and quite randomly a photo of my cousin audrey with her horse. Shortly after sorting It I went to Bangor races with a friend and to my amazement my cousin Audrey approached us in the paddock. She said that as she approached usit was just as though she were meeting my father. I told her about the picture that I had put in the car and she was intrigued why I had put it there to which I had no explanation. That day I lost my dads binocs as well. It was almost as though he had influenced my actions to see his favourite neice who had looked out for him in his latter years. He loved the races so maybe hes got the binocs in his new life.

tickets for the ballet

some years ago I bought 2 tickets for the ballet. when the time came to use them, I could not find them anywhere but I told my husband we should go anyway as I was sure I knew the date, number of the seats etc. we went along and were allowed in to the seats and it was a full house so I felt remarkably proud of my self for remembering everything correctly. the next day, I found the tickets on top of the fridge. the tickets were not for the day before but for the day I found them and were for different numbered seats !. I went along again with a friend this time and again it was a full house ! I have always wondered how I got to use 2 seats in the wrong place at the wrong time in a full house. the chances must have been very slim.

Wedding day surprise

On my wedding day I was delighted to find that my wife had given me a beautiful set of Mont Blanc cufflinks as a wedding day gift. I was surprised though that with no consultation or discussin they were identical to the Mont Blanc cufflinks I had bought for my best man as gift for that same day. Apparently we bought them from the same shop, a day apart and believe me when I say, you were spoiled for choice...

Bus Stop Coincidence

In 1976 I travelled from Liverpool to Sheffield to attend an interview for a job as a teacher. I had recently qualified and, prior to finding a full time job, was enrolled on a Knowsley Council scheme at Huyton. This involved project work working with other recently graduated (though, as yet, unemployed) teachers from Liverpool colleges. Sat opposite me in the Huyton office was a femail student who hailed originally from Sheffield. Other than this aquaintance, I had never had any other link or association with that city. While queuing at the Sheffield bus stop for the bus (to the school where I had the interview) I got talking to the person next to me in the queue. It transpired that she was closely related to the student I knew in Huyton (who now lived in Liverpool). At the time I was amazed that, in a chance meeting, and in a population pool of some 2 million (1.5m for Liverpool and 0.5m for Sheffield), that this connection was made. Barry Roberts (Norwich)

A friend in need

I work on a helpdesk taking calls for repairs for 5 hospitals, I had a call from one of them to say there was a problem with an operating lamp in Day Surgery theatre. The next day a message was left on my answering machine with a number to call back asking if it was safe to use the lamp. My best friend was due to have day surgery that day but did not say in which hospital and you are not informed what time you will be operated on until you arrive. Halfway through the morning I suddenly remembered to call the number left about the operating lamp, the phone was answered by an anaesthetist, he asked where I was calling from, which I told him, and could not understand why I had been given that number to call back and that he couldn't help me as he was just about to anaesthetise a patient. In the early afternoon I received a mobile call from my friend from the same hospital, it was her on the trolley waiting to be anaesthetised when I called! She went off to sleep with a smile on her face. Result ....... two very surprised friends and a husband who thinks we are witches!

mrs

During the war I was sent to boarding school in north wales . one year my dormitory prefect was B M . When she left school I bought her blazer ( as one did during the war ). Seven years later the man who was to become my husband invited me to go to the theatre . My blazer was an attractive narrow striped green white and black . We were still very short of clothes because of rationing so I wore my blazer . I had it across my knee and during the interval my escort noticed not only my name tape but also that of B.M. " WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH MY COUSIN`S BLAZER " said he .

Wedding ring break!

One year to the day of my Father's death, my Mother's wedding ring snapped - after 47 years of marriage! Coincidence? Regards, Carol S.

Missing ring turns up....

In 1983 my father had his signet ring cut from his finger. It had been a 21st birthday gift from my mother to him and he never took it off till that day when it was found he couldn't. So it was cut off. Then at 13 years old, I picked it up, put it on and under huge trust wore it for many years. When my taste changed from gold to silver I removed it put it in a box and safely hid it away in my tip of a bedroom until a few years later I decided to have it repaired as gift back to my father. To my memory I took it to a jewellers in Camberley high st and left it to be repaired. They never called to say it was ready to collect and when I enquired found they had gone bust and closed with the loss all stock and of my fathers ring. Cut forward 15 years or so and my father passed away quite suddenly and after 52 years of marriage my mother was alone and the memory of the signet ring returned to me with a heavy sense of guilt that played on my mind most deeply.

Birthday coincidence

When I was 16 years of age, my mother insisted I attend local ballroom classes, and there I was partnered with a young man called Richard, who was home on holiday from boarding school, and who I had never met before. When we began asking each other questions, we found out that we were the same age, born on the same day, and at the same clinic in Cheltenham. When I told my mother about this, she remembered that there had been a little boy who shared the same birthday. Richard and I began dating each other for a while, but then lost contact, as we both moved away, and I moved abroad. However, through the internet, we caught up with each other around 10 years ago, and although we have not yet met up again, we do send each other birthday greetings on the 20th October. We are now 65 years of age! Regards, Carol Saynor.

A Blast from the Past.

Following my divorce I lost total contact with my Ex Wife, several years after the divorce I was on Holiday with my then new partner, we were both looking into a new avenue of employment so we decided to look at some Guests Houses at the resort we were staying at, we got a list of Guest Houses in the Area that were for sale, One in particular took our fancy but the Estate Agent was unable to arrange a viewing appointment so we returned home, later the following week I was chatting to a Friend who also knew my Ex and told them of our intentions and that the Estate Agent had managed to book a viewing appointment for the following weekend, the friend looked at me in shock, then said do you realise who the owner of that property is == its your Ex Wife,!!! Needless to say we never took up the appointment, It would have been rather embarrassing if we had knocked on the door and she had answered.

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