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!

Seeing the same person at 4 different locations within 1 hour

I was once in the London Underground in mid winter and a girl caught my attention because she was only wearing a vest in the freezing weather. Once outside, I again saw her ahead of me crossing the road. A few minutes later I arrived at my destination only to see her press the buzzer to gain access to the building. I let the door close behind her and pressed the buzzer in turn. I went up the stairs and went into my client's office. The girl was sitting at a desk!

Film on TV

Approx 5 years ago I was thinking about a film I had seen and enjoyed called Harem (no accounting for my taste!) which was made in 1985, not particularly successful at the time, and about 15 years old at the point I was thinking about it. 2 days later I was looking for something to watch on TV and it was listed as showing that night. I don't think anything conscientiously or sub-conscientiously has caused me to think about it previously.

Mystery tour

When I was about 12, for my birthday, my dad took me and a few friends on a "Mystery Tour". On the way in the car, it was eventually revealed that we were going to see a crash. Sure enough, soon after we stopped in a lay-by for lunch, a car towing another car drifted into the lay-by, skidded on the gravel, missing me by a couple of feet and then veered back out into the road with both cars smashing hard into the central crash barrier. Luckily no one was hurt. All my friends were seriously impressed and some really believed he had staged the crash. In fact we were on our way to see the crash of the cargo ship Athina B on Brighton beach.

A meeting coincidence

I moved to Dublin from London 12 years ago when I was 18. While in Dublin my Mum called from London to say her friends neice was studying in Dublin, and would I mind meeting her and 'making friends'. I told my Mum that we weren't children, and that I didn't really have the time to meet up, (how nice of me!) after that conversation I thought nothing more of it. A couple of weeks later I went for a drink after work, one of my good friends turned up with a girl he had started seeing from Scotland. She was a lovely girl and we got on great. As the night went on she realised I was from London she told me that she had family in London. Long story short the girl I was talking to turned out to be my Mum's friend's neice. We couldn't believe it because like me she had told her Aunt she didn't want to meet me either!

reading and listening to same word

I often listen to BBC radio while reading a newspaper. Almost inevitably I find myself reading a word ('education', 'political', 'gender'....etc.) and hearing the same word on the radio - at the same time! I could be reading in French and/or listening in English, and the same thing happens - the word examples I give here are of course the same in both languages, but do not always mean the same thing.

The Last Photo

A couple of years ago a friend of many years called Ruby informed my wife and I that her Brother who lived in Ireland had just died. We had met him once some time before. Ruby asked me to design and print some small cards as a memorial to her brother. They would be given to people attending the funeral. I was given a photo of her brother who was by all accounts a character. For the front of the card I asked her what sort of picture what would be appropriate. She told me that her brother had always liked the sea. I borrowed a book of photographs of Ireland with hundreds of photo's in and selected a phot of an Irish Lighthouse with the waves crashing over it. I printed out a number of copies of the memorial card for distribution at the funeral which took place in Ireland. On her return Ruby told me from another brother that the last photograph of her dead brother was taken in a small boat. Shortly before the photo was taken her brother had spilt some gravy or soup onto his white shirt. In order to hide the stain when his photo was taken he had picked up a photograph and held it in front of the stain.

Dreams

On more than one occasion my husbandand I, on recounting dreams, have discovered we have had the same dream. The same people and places have been present in the dreams

Car crash coincidence

About twenty years ago I collected my son Anthony from Boys Brigade in Bath. I was asked to drop his friend Gary off near his father's house. (his parents were separated and his mother lived somewhere completely different) When we arrived at the spot to drop Gary I stopped the car. While he was in the process of getting out we became aware of a car coming straight for us veering from the opposite side of the road and showing no sign of braking. It hit us front on quite hard, just as Gary was half in and half out of the car. Once we had established we were all OK we realised the driver of the car that hit us was Gary's mother on her way home from work.. I have always been glad that Gary was not hurt. Migs

Friends reunited

I live in the south of England and in Ocober last year was on a coach holiday touring national parks in the USA. We stopped for a couple of hours at one of the viewpoints on the rim of the Grand Canyon. While strolling along the footpath, someone walking in the opposite direction called out 'Wendy, is it you?'. It was an old friend I hadn't seen for some 30 years and had lost touch with over 20 years ago. She lives in North Carolina and was also on holiday. We have both changed somewhat over the years, but she recognised my voice.

Picture this

I have just written my first (unpublished) children's story, and went to Smith's to look at similar books for publishing ideas. I picked one at random, and saw that the illustrator's name was unusual - Korky Paul - I had never heard of or seen the artist's work before, but was very impressed by its quality. Today, I went to Blackwell's (Oxford) on a similar mission. I asked the very helpful assistant about manuscript promotion , and the subject of illustration came up. She then said 'Oh, my uncle is Korky Paul'. I was astounded - two days ago I had never heard of him!

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