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.

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Well I Never!

Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University wants to know about your coincidences!

Apple cake all round

I made an apple cake to take to my daughter last week. My daughter lives away from home and we do not see her often, but when we do I take her a cake. This morning a friend said her mother had baked an apple cake last week for her friend's birthday. Yesterday, another friend emailed and offered to bring an apple cake for a gathering at my house. None of us had discussed apple cake and one friend doesn't bake often and I had not been in touch with either very much recently.

Aries friend

I became friends with a work collegue and I cannot remember how many times we went into town during the lunch hour and came back with the same item of clothing that we had purchased. Although we both had other items in our wardrobe there were many times that we turned up to the office with the same clothes on We lost touch for several years and I contacted her and we met up again. My friend mentioned to a friend that it would be funny after all this time if we met up and had the the same clothes on. It happened, we both turned up with black tops and red and black skirt although different patterns which had been purchased from Marks & Spencer There is a difference of 11 years in our ages, but the interesting thing is we were both born under the Aries star sign

Two random trips bring on a strange coincidence

With my family we flew to Skiathos and boarded our sailing boat chartered for the week. We set off for one of the islands, stopped for lunch and eventually moored in a harbour for the night. This pattern was repeated on the next two days. We chose our destination each morning depending on wind direction and sea conditions as my wife is apprehensive of loosing site of land. On the fourth day sitting in a taverna on another random island and in a random choice of resturant (one of many), a young woman came to sit on the opposite side of the block of chairs. This was Sue from the office where I worked, neither of us knew that the other was on holiday, nevermind on a Greek island. She and her husband had taken a last minute flight, booked a room at the airport, gone to the harbour the next morning and took the next ferryboat leaving, getting off at its destination, getting a room and repeating this each day. So how did we end up same island same taverna at the same time?

Birthday coincidence.

On 28th September2010 my wife and I went to Malta for a 2 week all inclusive holiday. We stayed at the Hotel Riu Seabank near Mellieha. The meals were in 2 sittings and on the first evening we were directed to a particular table which we shared with a younger couple for theduration of the holiday. As we got to know the couple similarities between myself and the other husband emerged :- 1 His name was David (as is Mine) 2 His birthday is on September 11th (as is mine) 3 He was born in 1953, I was born in 1935. Coincidental? Regards David Lloyd

New York shock

In October 2007 I was in New York celebrating our 1st wedding anniversary with my new husband and children (by my ex-husband). We were in Macy's doing some shopping when we bumped into my ex-husband's cousin and aunt, who live about 3 miles away from us at home. What are the chances of us being in New York at the same time, let alone being in Macys (one of the largest department stores in the world) on the same day, same time, same floor, same dept.... Corinne W

Lost, but Found

We visited Hunstanton in Norfolk,and stopped a couple to ask the way, but they were German tourists and did not know any directions.We then visited several other towns and ate sandwiches on a beach before ending up in Kings Lynn some hours later, and wanted to ask directions again.We saw a couple walking and wound down the car window,and the man said "we are still German and still do not know any directions!" we all had a good laugh.

Sixth sense

I have the recurring coincidence of when I walk into the town, Malmesbury in Wiltshire, of seeing a person in the distance and thinking it is somebody I know. I rehearse a conversation only to find it's somebody who looks like that person. A little later, sometimes seconds sometimes minutes the person I had in mind comes into view. It's good job I have rehearesed the opening line! It's happened on many occasions. Odd. Gordon W

Date of Death

Unfortunately, this is a tragic coincidence rather than one commemorating a happy event. My eldest daughter was given a gold signet ring belonging to her grandmother following that lady's death in 1989 aged 72. The ring was originally made for my daughters great-grandmother to commemorate the death of her father. The ring was inscribed with the lady's initials and the words "Father died 14 July 1904". My daughter wore the ring from 1989 but tragically died herself on 14 July 2004 aged 29, exactly 100 years to the day after her great-great grandfather's death. I am forwarding this having heard re the research on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday 14 January.

work colleague

My husband and I were camping on a small camp site in Somerset, about 10 years ago. The owner of the camp site asked where we came from, and said that his sister had moved to the same town in the Midlands 30 years previously, and still lived and worked there. He said that she had initially worked in the library there for a couple of years before taking a job in the housing office at the local council. We established that his sister and I had worked together at the library, and were still having contact with each other professionally - she as a housing office, and me as a probation officer in the same town.

my fathers robin reliant

I never listen to radio 2 only Radio 4. One day about 10 years ago Between 10 & 11 a.m. I tuned in to 2 by mistake. SimonBates was reading out readers tales of apology. It was about lads in Dagenham who overturned a Robin Reliant in a banjo ( A sort of Close) . The owner of the Car on finding it then knocked on their door & asked them would they mind helping him turn it over & he would buy them a drink--- even though he never went to the pub & had no idea they were the culprits. This was my Dad-- I remember him telling me about it . We lived in a banjo in Hunters Hall rd Dagenham, I was asounded to hear this -- the boys were really sorry But my Dad by that time was dead. I have never got over this incredible coincidence & was so sorry my Dad wasnt there to hear it. Never listened to Radio " since.

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