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!

old friend

I had lost touch with a friend I trained with in '69, She was in the Channel islands I was in Hampshire. (we trained in London) Seven years later I got on a crowded train at Winchester with my small daughter, there were not a lot of seats & I searched for someone who looked as if they wouldn't mind a small child next to them-I saw a lady who I thought looked kind & sat next to her. It was my lost friend of seven years earlier, we have stayed in touch ever since. Meg

Would we have married anyway?

Just before I was born my mother's eldest sister married a widower with two sons. Douglas was 4 years older than me and Gordon 8 years. We did not live very near to each other but were brought up as cousins Soon after the war started Gordon, by then engaged, went into the Royal Engineers but soon after being sent out to the Middle East he got a "Dear John" letter. Later Douglas went into the RAF and I wrote to them both. In 1942 Douglas was killed over Germany and perhaps that made me write to Gordon a little more. Not only was he far from home but his father had died soon after war started and now he had lost his only brother. In January 1944, and after 3.5 years away, there was a telegram to say that he was back in this country and would let us know as soon as he got leave. By then I had left school and was working at the Bank of England. The day after the telegram arrived I had arranged to go to Oxford Street in our lunch hour with an old school friend who had known Gordon, so there we were going down the escalator at Bank Underground as I told her all about it.

Surely thats very strange.....

Back in 1975 I was working in an office in Regent Street. I received a letter from a friend in Cape Town where I am from originally , who had written to say that her cousin Joy was on a trip to London and perhaps I would bump into her. Of course this elicited much laughter in the office when I told my colleagues + explained that my friend couldnt possibly imagine the population of London + how silly it was to imagine I could possibly bump into her cousin That evening I left work about 10 minutes later than usual and the Piccadilly Circus underground was as crowded as usual - I arrived on my platform just as the tail lights of a train dissapeared. I managed to get onto the next train with a squeeze and as I reached up to hold onto the overhead hanging support handle the train jolted and I fell into somebody- I looked up to aplogise and ... yes, it was Joy on her way to Heathrow to catch her return flight. The friend who sent me the letter about Joy had no idea just how remote the possibility of bumping into her cousin was and sent a letter : "glad you managed to see Joy "

Examination coincidence

On Friday 13th January I had taken my Merchant Navy Officer of the Watch oral examination at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency building in Southampton. I passed the exam, and then set off on the drive home to Formby, near Liverpool, a 250 mile journey. When I arrived in Formby I stopped for a pint in my local pub. I was at the bar talking to my friend about my exam, when a man approached me asking if I had just done my OOW oral exam as he had overheard me talking about it. It turned out that he was an MCA examiner who knew the person who examined me by name. This was amazing as the time frame between me passing the exam in Southampton and returning home was approximately 6 hours, 250 miles, and its not a very common job.

Saved from being a matching pair at interview

In 1972 I travelled overnight to attend a job interview. There was to be only one other candidate. On the morning of the interview I was annoyed to discover that I had forgotten to pack the bold striped jumper that went with my outfit and I had to make do with another one. On arriving for the interview the other girl was wearing the same bold striped jumper I should have been wearing - how silly would we have looked - a lucky escape from a strange coincidence (I got the job.)

Digital clock numbers

Often when I awake in the night my bedside digital clock shows times with repetitive numbers e.g. 2.22 or 4.44 etc. I canot detect any associated sound which could cause me to wake. I never win raffle ticket draws or any other chance. I do have a good sense of time of day and time span. I can usually correctly assess a persons character within five or so minutes of meeting them: worryingly so. Would I go up the side of a mountain with this person? Rarely is the answer yes.

Names

My daughter has six step-siblings due to my first partner having two children from a previous marriage and my present husband having four, Two of these siblings are girls and the coincidence is that whilst there is at least twenty years difference in their ages (so popular name trend is discounted), all three girls have married boys named Christopher but the biggest coincidence is that the two older girls married a Chris Thomas (not the same one). I, for several years worked with a Chris Thomas and either this is the most common name in England or this is a huge coincidence?

grandchild and grandmother

I was born on a friday,by forceps, 5 days before my grandmothers birthday. my grandaughter was born on a friday, by forceps, 5 days before my birthday

Phone numbers

The numbers 493 are in my mobile phone number next to each other, as they are in both my sister's home phone numbers.

Old schoolmate

I was forty years old and I hadn't seen my old schoolmate Ed for 15 years. One night I had a dream in which Ed was in. The next day I was in a town 15 miles from where I live and I bumped into Ed. The coincidence struck me immediately. I don't think it was a premonition just a coincidence. Previous to this dream I gave Ed little thought.

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