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!

Lost friend's location on front page

In the early 1980s I was in Stockholm and was soon going to go to Paris where an old friend from high school used to live. It had been a few years and I didn't know if she still lived there. I thought I would need to call my parents in Chicago to ask them to call her parents (also in Chicago). That day I missed a train and had to wait an hour for the next one so I bought a Wall St Journal. On the first page (column one I think) the first sentence was "Ellen S... just moved into a new apartment in Paris..." - the article was about the French telephone company and it started with a personal interest story about how hard it was to get a new phone line in those days. But I found out when I saw her that the coincidence wasn't as great as it appeared. A mutual friend from high school was the European editor of the Wall St Journal and knew Ellen well and suggested a reporter contact her for this story.

In Memory of Bruce "Crazy Horse" Hardy

For the last month or so I've been watching "High Way Thru Hell" series on Netflix. The last three days been watching S3 Ep 10 and just didn't watch it right through like I would usually. But today on the 10th of October I did and at the end of the Episode saw that it was dedicated to Bruce Hardy. So curious me goes and Google's his name to find out a bit more regarding when he passed away. I came across a Facebook Group "In Memory of Bruce Crazy Horse" Hardy where someone just posted 2hrs ago that he died on this day 10th of October 2014. What's the chances of that happening. I suppose it does happen. It just seems to happen to me alot.

Superstore coincidences

I've recently been watching the show Superstore. As I started watching and making it through season 1, they have a specific date they mention, that they say "we don't talk about that date" That date is March 14th (My Birthday). Later through the series sometime in season 2, they mention another date of June 17th (My Brothers Birthday). I don't remember the significance of this date in the show, but then later on in season 3 or 4..., one of the characters (Amy) has a baby and names the baby Parker. This is my sons name. I usually don't think much about it when shows have had my specific birthday mentioned, but this has quite a few coincidences of things in my life and I find it very interesting to say the least.

Dates in the family

We called our daughter Sophie because my sister and my husband's sister both have Sophie as a second name (is that also a coincidence?). My daughter then died (suddenly and unexpectedly) the day of my sister's (of the middle name Sophie) birthday and the day my sister in law (of the middle name Sophie) gave birth to her 3rd child. (Our second child was born on the birthday of my sister-in-law's first child - also odd). Shitty dates, shitty story but a big coincidence... ?

Nice to meet you. Oh, I sold you my house 11 years ago.

In 2008, my family sold our house to a single man in Royal Oak, Michigan. We move back to Texas and have since moved to Nashville. Just this week (Sept 2019), my boss introduced me to a contact at a potential partner that he thought I should speak with further. The man was from Michigan. You know where this is going now. After exchanging pleasantries, I offered that I had lived in Michigan years ago. Then Royal Oak. Then the specific street. Then the specific house number. Lo and behold, the aforementioned business contact is the very guy I sold my house to 11 year ago.

Simultaneous occurrence - shawshank redemption

On Friday last ; mentioned Shawshank Redemption to person whom I meet once a year in same day Shawshank Redemption was mentioned in Irish times ;I heard on same day shawshank Redemption music featured on Lyric Fm radio for 10 minutes I expect the probability of hearing the film name on the same day to be very low indeed for these three different media

Neighbors

My family moved into the home we have now in 2014. The man next door lived here for most of his life, his father built this house in 1998. His wife has the same name as me only spelled differently, she has the same birthday as me but not the same year. We are very much alike as far as our personalities and interests and the things we do and buy. We have become best friends and we are neighbors and she also lived in this house with her husband years before we moved here. I think we were meant to find each other, maybe a coincidence, may not.

Premonition? Coincidence?

It was my 11th wedding anniversary and my mother stayed overnight with our kids . The following morning my husband and I were having breakfast in the hotel when my husband started talking about the new pistol that he had bought. I was not even interested and was just kinda not really listening about it. He noticed this and said “listen, you need to know how to use this gun Incase something ever happens to me and I can’t use it. You need to pull really hard from the front.” So to appease him, I said “okay pull hard from the front.” Then the subject changed and we went on with our day. Early evening we arrived home and I went in to see our kids while my husband had some things to do outside and feed our dog. We owned a smaller house on our property that we rented to a family friend. They had a large Labrador mix dog that was about 10 years old. The dog was pretty sketchy. Had taken food from my 3 year old sons hand a few days prior so I brought my kids inside and really didn’t think anymore about it.othef than the dog had been attacking our year old lab several different times but the owner had been home when it happened and he quickly stopped it.

Keys

I lost my keys and then I found them.

Kindergarten Teacher

I went to see a Flamengo Dancer Show in Barcelona. I was there with my family. We were at a long table with other people. The woman seated across from me started a conversation. We are both from Brooklyn, NY. We both went to elementary school at PS 277, about 10 years apart. We both were in Mrs. Gottesman's Kindergarten class! Small world.

Pages