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!

Hotel Room numbers

On visiting Kyoto Japan on a stopover to Australia, our room no. was 326, in Cairns Australia the room no. was 3246, In melbourne the car no. reg'n was 4, hotel room no. 4 and the no. of the guest house was no.4. The lottery numbers that week were 2 3 4 32 39 and star no. 44. Unfortunately I only did 2 lines with these nos. and received $10 Aust. We changed a car from no. 53 and purchased a new car with registration 539. Since then we have had a room no. 539 in a hotel in Malta and the cabin no. on a ship was 359. These numbers have occurred frequently since then, £59.53 , £ 39.95, etc. on visits to supermarkets. On looking at some old photographs of cars we have purchased, we noticed three cars with registrations 704,744 and 74. Meeting people on holiday at the same hotel and then meeting up with them again in a completely different country. This has happened on at least 4 occasions. Speaking to people for a few minutes in a restaurant in Florida and then 10 years later being on the same table on a cruise, was just unbelievable.

random meeting

On holiday in hong kong we met in the street our GP who was stopping over for one day on her way from Australia.

lost a blue snorkel found a red snorkel.

Back in 1986 on holiday in Limassol Cyprus Four of us hired a pedalo and set out from the shore. I put down my blue snorkel and mask on the deck only to find that it had fallen overboard and was lost. A little later and further out we spotted a red snorkel and mask lying on the sea floor. I swam down and retrieved it.

After fifty years

I lived in a small hamlet of about thirty people in Shropshire.In our lane there were five houses. Four of them changed hands in about three years. All of the newcomers were retired. In conversation, we discovered that six of the eight newcomers had been at school within three miles of each other in North-West London. Furthermore the wife of one couple, who had moved to Shropshire from Northumberland, and the husband of their next-door neighbours, who had moved to Shropshire from Devon, had actually shared a desk at a primary school in Harrow.

Fate to Meet

I was sweet 16 when the Sun Newpaper were advertising for penfriends for Military Personnel who didnt get mail in the Falklands War . I wrote and a guy wrote back to me called Steve Cass and he was serving with the RAF as mechincal Transport. He was a big bloke 6ft 4ins in his twenties. We wrote twice a week for 6 months, planed to meet etc and then it stopped heared nothing from him ever again. I joined the RAF in September 1984 as Telecommuications and my training would send me to RAF Cosford, but i took very ill whilst training and missed my course, so when i cam out of hospital i had three choices as a trade to choose. To be a cook, to work in a supply depot or to be a driver for the RAF i asked do they teach you to drive as i couldnt drive at the time. Yes they said and so i went as Mechincal Transport did all my training in Wales and my first posting was RAF Chessington in Surrey. It was a very small unit and one of the drivers picked me up called David. I asked him how many was there in the section he said just 7 of us which included me. He stated to name the drivers and their ranks and the last person is said was a guy called Steve Cass big bloke 6ft 4.

The Same Dress

My neice and I managed to buy the same dress for my daughter's wedding. Quite a coincidence in itself but even more so when one considers the fact that she bought hers at "Quiz" in Glasgow and I bought mine at another branch of the shop in Preston, Lancashire.

Friends reunited

In nour local art gallery in Newcastle I met by chance two Dutch colleagues of my brother, who worked in the Netherlands. I knew one was called Helen. We agreed to meet that evening. Five minutes later, also in the gallery, I met an ex pupil of mine whom I had not seen for 15 years, called Helen Scott. We chatted. At home, I realised I did not know the surname of my brother's friend, Helen, in order to phone her hotel and rearrange our time of meeting. I phoned my brother, to be told that hthis Helen's surname was also 'Scott' - two Heln Scotts as blasts from the past within 5 minutes!

Miss Amy Robinson

Hi I have had several instances where I bump into other people wearing the same clothes as me, so much so that I now alter my clothes to make then different and am very tempted to start making my own, so that way no-one will have the same top/coat/trousers/dress as me!

Similar logos

My name is Geoff. I went to Arnold High School in Nottingham in the 1960s. The school badge was a spread eagle. After I left school I got a job with Barclays Bank and worked for them for 38 years. Their logo was - and still is - the spread eagle.

Child birthdays

I escaped a difficult relationship a few years ago, and went on to meet a lovely man. I then heard up the grapevine that my ex's new girlfriend had had his child - born on my birthday. 18 months later I went into labour, and my daughter was born on my ex's birthday.

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