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!

bilobal

On the 9th January 2006, I was in labour with my third child at the Women's Hospital in Liverpool. In the delivery suite we had the TV on in the background and were watching some teatime television. On the popular letters game in the show Countdown, one of the words that came up was the word bilobal - having two lobes. My son Zak was born that evening with a double lobed right ear!

same person

In August 1977 I went to Tenerife on holiday with a couple of friends. We met 3 French lads, one of whom had already paired up with a German girl called Elke. 2 of us paired up with the remaining 2 French boys and the 6 of us spent much of the holiday together. After the holiday there was no further contact with any of the others. The following year, I went on holiday to Majorca, in October. At the hotel, I got into the lift and there were already 2 girls in it. One of them was Elke! So, a different year, a different country, we were at the same hotel, in the same lift.

Several coincidences of meeting people.

My husband and I were visiting New Zealand, driving ourselves and using motels. One morning, we were watching the boiling mud at one of the thermal areas on the North Island, when another car pulled in to the small car park and a couple came across to where we were standing. As usual, we fell in to conversation. They too were English, and it turned out that they used to live in the small village where we live now, but they had moved north several years ago. At one of the motels on the South Island, we were amazed to see the names of a couple from the town we lived in at the time in the visitors book from the previous day. The husband of the couple used to work for my husband in the past. Unfortunately, the owner didn't know where the couple had gone, so we didn't meet them. Closer to home: I was sitting on some rocks at the back of a Dorset beach in the summer, when a small group of people arrived and set up easels and began sketching. One lady moved away from the group and came and sat quite near to me.

Siblings birthdays coincidence

I have 2 brothers & a sister & we all have the same birthday, Sept 7th. I was born in 1966, my brother James was born in 1968 & then the twins, Victoria & Thomas were born in 1972. 4 Virgos in the same house, thankfully we don't conform to type!

unexpected encounter

My coincidence happened on one of our trips to Australia. As we were flying from Heathrow I found myself sitting next to a young girl of about 18 who was going for a gap year. She was rather anxious about the experience and I talked to her for some time trying to reassure her that all would be well and she would enjoy herself. We parted company in Singapore (I think) and she flew on to Sydney whilst we flew to Perth. We stayed with friends for 2 weeks then visited Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane. After arriving in Brisbane we decided to take a day trip to Fraser Island as it is an enormous sand dune island. We went on a special vehicle up through the rain forest coming out in the open by a fresh water lake. As we got off the vehicle the same young girl came to us and asked if we were enjoying our holiday. This was about 4 weeks after the plane journey and although it is a tourist spot we had not previously planned to go there and we did not know she would be there.

Near Neighbours.

I was walking along a beach with a workmate, walking across the beach gave us access to the forest that we were both working in. We started talking about coincidences, he told me that a local chap who was a diver and sailor was working in the Caribbean recently, sailing a boat around. One day he got slightly lost but found a small island with 2 people on it,they were honeymooners who were visiting the small Island as part of the honeymoon package, they would be picked up later by staff from their hotel.The sailor asked the honeymooners if they knew the way to a certain island the he was trying to locate, they said no but asked him if he came from Scotland because of his accent. He said yes, they asked him whereabouts in Scotland he said Argyll. It turned out that the honeymooners had bought the house next door to the sailor and would move in after their honeymoon. By the time my workmate had told me this story we had walked to the far end of the beach, there just getting out of the water after a dive for clams was the sailor in the story.

next door neighbours

My mother, Betty, trained as a nurse during World War 2 in Berkshire. One of her fellow students was always called 'Sally' by her friends. After their training Betty and 'Sally' went their separate ways. 'Sally' married a doctor at the hospital and Betty went to various other nursing jobs before ending up back in South Wales, where she had been brought up, and where she met and married my father, a teacher. The 2 nursing friends completely lost touch with each other. After their marriage my parents moved to Surrey and later to Northamptonshire. In 1971 they moved to Bedfordshire, where my father was appointed Headteacher of a village school and where they lived in an old School House. The village post office was next door and sometime after they moved in it changed hands. My mother went to a jumble sale in the school hall one evening and saw a face across the room that looked familiar.

A Face from the past.

In the early sixties i worked for a national TV company which was involved in a change of name due to a government allotment of licenses,I was made redundant. After being paid a lump sum of money and being re-employed in my job I put my windfall to good use and took a mortgage on a small house in High Barnet,Herts. After time due to a couple of additions to the family I decided to upgrade to a brand new house right out past Witham in Essex. Now though i was still in a very interesting job in TV travelling in lots of countries,money was a little tight so my Wife (a former dressmaker) took a home job machining tool kits with a sewing machine supplied by a company in London. Now occasionally due to breakdowns, a young sewing machine engineer was sent to our home and we got to sort of know each other but like all things, that came to an end. In 1974 I split from my wife and after 5years with my new partner,commuting from such places as Guildford and AshVale to London I lost my Job in TV due to drink driving. Having lost my job and driving license I took a Gov.t. retraining course in carpentry which eventually led to a job at the Middlesex Hospital in central London.

Empire State

I was visiting New York and standing in the queue at the Empire State Building. I heard the people in front talking and they were from the same small town in England where my parents live and knew them..

Flatmate

I had a flatmate who I had not known prior to that. One day my friend was visiting from San Francisco and they got talking. Turned out he grew up in the same small village in Lincolnshire she did and their families knew each other..

Pages