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!

Birthday Cards

My brother,Mark,went to work in the Falklands several years ago. I am (Kim) I live in Maidstone,my sister Carol lives in London & my youngest sister Tracy lives in Horsmonden,Tonbridge. When it was Mark's birthday on 22nd November all of us sisters sent the exact same birthday card. We didn't know this until my brother told us,he thought it was some sort of joke. When he came home he brought the cards to show us. Quite unbelievable.

An Historic Coincidence

We live in Warwickshire, but in January 2011 we spent a weekend for the first time at The Old Ship Inn, Brighton, at a backgammon tournament my husband was taking part in. A few weeks afterwards, at home, I was looking up some of my husband's ancestors in old censuses online . I found my husband's great-great grandfather John Garrard E in the 1851 census -as a guest at The Old Ship Inn, Brighton.

Jasper Carrott

In early September of 1997 my husband and I were in the British Airways Club Lounge at Heathrow Aiport Terminal 4. My husband pointed out a guy to me, saying he thought it was Jasper Carrott. I took a good look at him, as discreetly as possible and told my husband that it wasn't Jasper Carrott. We looked again and my husband then agreed that he'd been mistaken. A while later we decided to stretch our legs and have a wander around the duy-free shops, walking past the lookalike on the way. As we exited the Club Lounge a man entered and we did a double take when we realised it was the real Jasper Carrott.

Same names

I wasn't very close to my sister though that has improved. As far as I was concerned her son was christened James. It was only many years later I realized he was James Robert Alexander. My son is Robert Alexander. My best school friend also called her son Alexander during a period we weren't in touch. Carrie

First cousins 35 mins apart

My daughter was born on May 25th 2004. My husband's brother's daughter was born that same night, just 35 minutes later. When the babies were conceived we were living in London and my brother-in-law and his wife were living in New Zealand and neither or us knew the other was trying for a baby when we became pregnant. They then moved back to England and their baby was born in Manchester and ours in London. So the first cousins are also twins. One weighed 9lbs 10oz, the other 9lb 12oz. Both had a red mark on their eyelid (though these are apparently quite common in new-borns). To further the coincidence, my mother-in-law, who is grandmother to the two girls has four grand-daughters born between 22nd and 25th May, a grand-daughter by each of her four children.

Foreign flatmate's sister

Late 70's I was shopping at a market stall in Florence Italy when an American girl (I'm British) who was stood next to me said "Is your name Caroline?" In shock I replied Yes, but I'd never met the girl concerned. A few years earlier I had lived in Florence on a placement for a language degree. For part of that time I had become friendly and shared a flat with this girl's older sister, Marcia. Her sister obviously heard the English voice and because of the city connection wondered if it might be me - and she knew my name - I don't remember her's. Maybe she'd seen a (old by now) picture of me though I'd never seen one of her. This was the first time I'd paid a visit to Florence since living there. What were the chances that I'd be in exactly the same place to bump into someone from another continent who recognized me through somebody else I used to know. And she twigged - because I wouldn't have. Carrie

new zealand holiday

while on a driving holiday in new zealand one day we went to a really quiet remote spot by a river. there where two ladies there parked up enjoying the sun. in conversation with them, they mentioned that their husbands had gone fishing. i joked that they were " fishing widows" and that i was a " railway widow " as my husband is a train buff. one of the ladies, who it turned out was on holiday with her sister, asked were we came from and when i said the Wirral she asked if i knew a chap called Dave who volunteered on a welsh railway. it turned out that he was a mutual friend of ours and also, she belonged to the same walking group as him and his wife.

death in the family

a close relative had died and we were trying to contact a next of kin who was on holiday in florida. no-one knew her contact address or phone number so we had given up. our daughter and family were also on holiday and had gone to an office to collect the key to their accomodation. while waiting, my daughter became aware of another couple. on hearing the man's voice, she enquired if his name was Jim.(she had only met him once before, several years earlier at a family wedding )it was him and he was the husband of the lady we were trying to contact. my daughter was unaware of the death in the family but when she rang to say who she'd just met, i sent her after them to relay the sad news

MRS DIANA H

a close relative had died and we were trying to contact a next of kin who was on holiday in florida. no-one knew her contact address or phone number so we had given up. our daughter and family were also on holiday and had gone to an office to collect the key to their accomodation. while waiting, my daughter became aware of another couple. on hearing the man's voice, she enquired if his name was Jim.(she had only met him once before, several years earlier at a family wedding )it was him and he was the husband of the lady we were trying to contact. my daughter was unaware of the death in the family but when she rang to say who she'd just met, i sent her after them to relay the sad news

Cat coincidence

Here's another one. I had a cat named Saki, after the author HH Munro. Saki the cat died on Munro's birthday. Unfortunately for the sake of coincidence she had not been born on the date of his death in WWI. But I have always wondered what the odds were that she died on 18 December.

Pages