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!

soul sister

Okay. So here's the thing. Me and a girl I've met. Which is now my best friend. We haven't been friends for that long, but we've been having strange. Crazy phenomenal coincidences that has been happening out of nowhere. She's like attracted to something And later on that day, or maybe you like within that wheat, I would find something. And it just be the exact same thing that she found or had interest in it's crazy because I was eating a sandwich the other I was eating a sandwich and I had a friend go and order me a spicy chicken from Burger King will before she She ate. A country fried steak sandwich and I had gotten the order. He didn't look at the order. But it was a country fried steak sandwich from Burger King. Well as crazy as hell. And also she was attracted to a speaker that she had found what I had a friend. I was out here one day and we were metal hunting. And I ended up finding the same saying she found beforehand while we were walking through a Trail Is that weird wrong to same things but it's weird because it's like we're we just met kinda.

Unopened letter opened and read EXACTLY 19 years later

I was cleaning out paperwork from a storage unit over the weekend on 2-22-2020 when I found an unopened letter from 2001. I had sent it to my long-distance-boyfriend (who later that year became my husband and is now my ex-husband) 19 years ago. The letter was postmarked 02-26-2001 (ALMOST exactly 19 years to the date) and I decided to record myself opening this letter. This occurrence already felt special. I read it and its dated topic (I was sending him a calling card so he can call me from the pay phone!) and when I was done reading it I noticed the date on the letter: 02-22-2001. I had in my hands a letter I had written EXACTLY 19 years to the day! To. the. day!! I'm still freaking out.

Is this a coincidence?

So I'm not entirely sure if this is a coincidence or not but about two days ago my professor started our class by playing "Ain't That America" which I began to sing because I knew it from my mom playing it. I didn't know who sang the song however so I decided to google it and I learned John Mellancamp was the singer. Fast forward to yesterday (2/18/2020) when I am talking to a guy I like who is from Brooklyn. He begins to tell me about where he's from and then he brings up Pop Smoke, who is from the same neighborhood in Brooklyn as him. I think nothing of it and go to bed and then I wake up today and learn that Pop Smoke was murdered in John Mellancamp's Daughter's home. Maybe I'm reading too much into it but I find it to be quite weird.

Is the Universe trying to tell me something?

A friend and I was having a conversation one day about considences and how everything is connected and ever since that day I've been experiencing multiple considences. I don't remember all of them but here is one. I was on Facebook one day and a post for a missing person came up , was someone I knew. A comment was written that he been found two days before. Later that day I went to work then at some point I turn around and hes standing there , not knowing I work there etc.

Wedding lost ring on beach reappears two days later

In 1964 my family went on holiday to Lloret del Mar in Spain. I was seven years old and we spent many days on the beach, interspersed with day trips around the area. One afternoon we were getting ready to leave the beach when my father noticed he had misplaced his wedding ring, he would take it off before going swimming. We all spent a long time sifting through the sand to no avail, eventually giving up and returning to the hotel. Every evening the beach was raked by the hotel staff to keep it free of rubbish. The next day we went on a day trip to Barcelona. The following day back to the beach, late in the afternoon my father and I went for a swim and then returned to where my mother was sunbathing, I was sitting on the edge of the towel my mother was laying on smoothing the sand with flat of my hand, after one sweep of my hand a red bottle top was exposed, I picked it up and there underneath was my father's wedding ring

Shared friends

Grade 7 and 8 I was friends with a group of people at my school and in grade 9 I moved away and thus lost contact with them. First year of university, I befriended this girl who, as it turns out, had started going to the school in grade 9 and had become with the exact same group of people I was friends with.

New guy has same birthdate as my ex husband

About 4 years after my ex husband left, I dated a man who turned out to have the same birthdate as my ex but it was different year.

Pope John Paul II

My name is Iwona My three personal coincidences joined with Pope John Paul The Second: 1. I was born 18.05 ; the same day of the year was born Pope John Paul II 2. I had a serious traffic accident on scooter with many aftermaths operations on my left leg, knee and foot. It happened 02.04 . That is a day of death of Pope John Paul II(02.04) 3. After traffic accident I was transferred by ambulance to hospital by name of Pope John Paul II, where I was operated 02.04 , where I spend 2 months after accident and later had other operations and medical visits.

Umberto D

Last night I decided to watch the 1952 Sica film "Umberto D." I happened upon a thread earlier in the week which suggested watching the film, and so I did. Today was the first day of my Film Theory class. The first film we're watching: Umbert D.

Bavarian Relatives meet in Rome

When I was a child, my parents and I visited Rome for holidays and sightseeing. Close to the Vatican, we sat in a restaurant and our relatives - whom we meet quite frequently at home in southern Bavaria - passed by and we spotted them through the window and went out to ask them in. As far as I remember, we spent the afternoon together and had Italian ice cream.

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