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!

Three grandfathers in my family share a death date in different years

My paternal grandfather died on November 21, 2005. My maternal grandfather died one year later on November 21, 2006. As the only child of my father, I am the only one to share these two grandfathers. This year, my first cousins (my mother's sister's daughters) now have this in common with me. Their father's father died on November 21, 2019. Also, my maternal grandfather was born on 12-12-21 and his great grandson (son of one of my cousins mentioned above who just lost their other grandfather) was born on 12-21-12.

Meeting on a train journey

Paddington Station the evening commute - the train to Penzance was delayed by 2 hours due to a fatality. Suddenly, we had the go ahead to get on a train the line was now open. There were hundreds of people on the concourse and it was a race to get a seat on the train. I travel second class but when there is a delay and hundreds of people boarding the train with no prospect of a seat I just plonk myself down in first class, as I did this evening. In the four seats facing each other there was me (a woman) and three men. Of course, there was a half hour delay before the train began its journey so we four got talking. One was a barrister, one an IT executive and the man sitting next to me said he was Sir ***'s right hand man. Sir *** started and owns a very large worldwide company. "Fancy that", I said. "Well the next time you see Sir *** can you tell him that you sat next to his ex-secretary on a delayed train from Paddington? I was secretary to Sir *** when he and his brother had a smallish accounting firm in Sydney, Australia".

DIY Tool

A couple of weeks ago I started doing some DIY - building some walls using plaster board fixed to a metal framework. I'd been told that I needed to get a special tool to crimp the sections of metal frame together so I looked on the internet for it. I live in France so was searching in French but didn't know the correct name of the tool and had a stab at various word combinations and eventually came up with pince à expansion; From the picture of the tool it was clear that it wasn't the one I needed although it said it was for plaster board. I'd never seen this tool before and couldn't work out how it might work ( I eventually found the right tool by trawling through the shelves at the local Brico-Depot). As I was looking at the webpage our doorbell rang. It was a friend from a few doors away, Jean-Louis, who wanted to borrow something. My French isn't great and his English about the same so there was a lot of umminng and erring and gesticulating and eventually he demonstrated using what in English would be a cavity wall anchor plug that he needed the tool to pull the bolt out causing the plug to expand behind the plasterboard.

Birthdays

My mother gave birth to me, June 12th. My mother Expected to give birth to my brother on my birthday, but delivered 4 months early exactly on February 12th. My oldest sister gave birth to her second daughter on her fathers birthday. May 18th. My my second oldest sister gave birth to her oldest son, March 20th exactly 1 year later she gave birth to another son, March 20th. I gave birth to my son on my 18th birthday. June 12th. My second oldest sister gave birth to another boy, sharing his birthday with his older brothers. March 20th. March 20th is my nephews fathers fathers birthday. (Grandpa dads side) March 20th is my nephews mothers grandmothers and grandfathers wedding anniversary (great grandparents mothers side)

The T Shirt

I belong to a group who puts on a folk music festival (the South Country Fair) the 3rd weekend of July every year in a relatively small town (population less than 3,000) in Southern Alberta, Canada. The festival is not huge by some standards - lets say 1200 attendees or so a year - but we have our own merchandise which includes SCF shirts for our attendees and one in a different colour for our volunteers. In the summer of 2010 my future son-in-law silk screened a batch of SCF T shirts for the directors, let's say 50 or so shirts. There may have been more but that's the number I recall. In May of the following year my 82 year old dad and I were in Accra, Ghana. Dad had moved our family from Saskatoon Canada to Cape Coast Ghana in 1969 where we'd lived for 5 years. This was our first trip back and we had hired a driver to take us to the home of an old friend of dads that he hadn't seen in 40 years. Accra has a population of over 1.5 million and we'd been driving for over an hour, winding deeper and deeper in to the city while our driver was on and off the phone with our friend, finding our way to his home.

Name on a brick

I have an allotment, in Edinburgh, and of the eight which surround mine (including the ones that touch just at a corner) two have water taps. I've been there for 10 or more years, and filled a bucket or attached a hose more times than I could count. In April 2019 there I was, idly filling a bucket, my eyes wandering over the adjoining plot next to the tap. Some tidying up... some weed-suppressing matting weighted down by bricks. And on the old bricks (an allotment area is full of them - making paths, walls, props, movable weights) are the brick-makers names. One name - AUCHINLEA - popped out at me. I'd never seen a brick with this name on before, and here were two, within touching distance. I felt that heart-stopping lurch which you get - the adrenalin surge or whatever it was. This was a real coincidence that shocked me.

Christmas incident

One year my horrid in- laws were going to visit for Christmas dinner. I had really tried hard and pulled out all the stops. Bought a little picnic table that could fold up into a carry case. I’d put the table up which folded out into two benches and a table with an umbrella. I was in South Africa then so it was warm at Christmas. Well that table looked great in the garden and my small daughter was so excited with the decorations from the middle umbrella to the house roof. And I had put the lamb leg roast and ham out with the vegetables on the table. Rachael was watching the whole scene and the door bell rang as they were here. Excitement high I ran to the door. Greeting and telling them to run to the back to see what we had done. These were people who could not be easily entertained. I arrived at the garden to disaster. My daughter had bounced on the edge of one of the foldout seats, destabilizing the table and the whole thing folded out and the vegetables and meat had flown to the ground with the velocity and my bulldog greeted them and me at the dog with lamb in his mouth. My mother in law made sandwiches with the bread!!!!! She has brought to share.

Scoot on as scooters do

When I was 11 years old I was over a friends house playing. I rode my razor scooter over to his house that day which was one of my favorite toys. At some point his dad came home and yelled up the stairs that he’s sorry for whoever’s scooter was out front because he had ran it over. I was so upset and hoped he was joking with us but I went out front and there it was mangled....they never offered to replace or even compensate at all which stuck with me......fast forward 16 years...still young at heart and enjoying the thrill of being on wheels me and a friend approached a bike shop on our bikes because he needed to replace his tire I waited outside where two kids on scooters were talking about their scooters and their new gear ...then I thought back to all my memories from the days Of scootering and that day when I was 11 and my friends dad had crushed my favorite toy...me and that friend grew apart at around 14 and I haven’t talked to him since 18 years old or seen his father...I am now 28 ..after my flashback to the days of scootering my ex friends father walked right out of the bike shop !

Angie Arcila

2019 has been a rough year for our family ever since my dad’s passing Memorial Day 2016 life has gotten very complicated financially and emotionally so this month October/2019 has been hard I’ve Been out of work due to our disabled child being sick so am out on ny pfl “payed family leave” and my husband has been out of work for almost a year so money has been tight and am just going back to work in three days so unfortunately my gas was shut off and we are bathing with water I heat up in a microwave so then my microwave went dead and about two days go by then on Columbus Day we went out for a walk and then our neighbor who is never a friend or even talks to me said do you need a microwave am throwing mine out cause I bought a new one so I accepted with a smiling on my face I told her I was needing a microwave since mine died but I don’t think she even believed me but I know in my heart it was more than coincidence and someone is watching over our family!

Gut feelings

Met this person for the very first time at a social event just as I was about to leave, they left quite an impression on me and I ended up staying longer, running late to some other place I had to go to. Then, as I left, I had this very strong feeling that they might come to the same place as I was going (there was an event scheduled there too, but it was a very niche kind of event). Two hours later they showed up to event 2 and we crossed paths just as they entered the main room. I was very surprised and almost said "I knew you were coming". For reference, I knew nothing about this person except for name and where they used to live until recently, so I had no way nor any leads to assume that this would happen...

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