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!

4 Marks in a Line

My father, called Mark, was recently held in a queue for a coffee at a Starbucks and as such was asked for his name when he made his order. He gave it and moved on. The next person came up and gave their name, also as Mark. This happened two more times, giving 4 people named Mark congregating by accident in a row within this line. Not only was this a great coincidence, but also made things confusing when it finally came to collect the coffee!

I believe that which I do not wish to believe

You can put aside all of the stories you've heard. I'm the only source for the true meaning of real " Coincidences ". During the past thirty - five / forty years I've had anywhere from two thousand to many thousands of them. Depends on what would be considered to be meaningful . Really began around 1982 , involved a second involvement with a particular person. That's when the dam broke. In earlier years I was aware that I would always do just the wrong thing in certain circumstances but did not place much importance in them. Thought they could be just chance or subconscious negative decisions and even tho I did believe that some people had psychic ability a less spiritual individual than myself would be hard to find. I thought I did not know what the nature of the universe was and never would. I used to think how odd it would be to have glimpses into an underlying reality. I am now aware of the underlying structure of reality/the universe. I know this by experience and an understanding of myself, that is I know the reason for what has happened to me. And I know the wonder of knowing what I know..

The streets of London ARE paved with gold

I was working in the City of London and one lunchtime I strolled along Bishopsgate which is a busy road alongside Liverpool Street station. As I approached the Tesco store I saw a £5 note on the pavement, I stopped and looked around and it looked as if no-one had just dropped it so I went over to it and picked it up. My lucky day i thought! I moved on a few yards and there was a Big Issue selling his magazine, I'm pretty sure he didn't see my stoke of luck but I thought he probably needs it more than me and "easy come easy go" as they say. I gave it to it and he was much appreciative of it. The next day, I left my office to head for home turning down a side street off of Bishopsgate, again a popular thoroughfare, but on this occasion quite empty. I strolled along and halfway down the street I came upon a £10 note laying in the middle of the street! I was quite astounded as I don't think I'd ever found any notes just laying on the road before especially not two days consecutively. Maybe it was karma for my good deed the day before? What would have happened the following day if I'd given that £10 away (this time there was no-one around)

Unepected links with one of my brothers

My wife attended a forty year anniversary of her school year last Saturday. We still live in the area. Today she went to a yoga class, not her normal one but an earlier one for some reason. At the class she met one of the women she had met for the first time in forty years last Saturday. In discussion afterwards she told my wife that she had never been to this class before either. They then started talking about what they were doing now and it became apparent that she worked at the John Lewis shop in Trafford Centre. My brother used to work there so my wife mentioned this. It then became clear that my brother and her were close work colleagues for years. My bother lives in Salford, ten miles away from me. For only the first time in ten years of going to this class I had driven my wife there and after going to the dentist I picked her up so I was able to meet this woman, and talk about my brother to her. The second coincidence with this brother is as follows.

Three Family Members Died Same Day, Same Month

My closest friend's elderly dad died on September 5, 2000. Her youngest brother had died in a car accident in his twenties on September 5, 1981. Her younger brother then died of cancer at 50 years old on September 5, 2012. What are the odds of this?

Duran Duran Concert

I was a late 30’s wife and mother who just moved to a new city. My husband and I became friendly with a couple down the street. The husband - “Chip” and I were both from a small city about 3 hours away. One evening we were hanging out with them talking about a high school. I mentioned I had passed on seeing the Police in concert but somehow made it to Duran Duran in our city in the early 80’s. His wife laughed and said “please don’t bring up that concert - it was one of the worst nights of his life!” Of course I asked why and he proceeded to tell a story where a very drunk girl threw up all over his back during the concert. He went on about how he had to throw away his brand new Izod shirt and buy a concert T-shirt. I sat there quietly and asked if he remembered where he sat in the arena. It took a few minutes before I could admit that I was the drunk girl - I had never had a beer in my life and when the Pizza Hut waitress offered, my friends and I had ordered a pitcher of beer. Clearly it didn’t sit well with me! I love coincidence stories too and have gotten a lot of mileage out of this one (only with select audiences!)

Finding a link w someone

I grew up on Long Island and a high school friend had a long distance romance with a guy she met from Media PA when we were in hs.I then went to College in PA and my roommate who was from Media PA also dated him. I remembered the name and confirmed it w my hs friend in another college. My mom’s friend was housesitting for a family in NY and the daughter was supposed to get married on a cruise but the fiancé canceled it before and they decided to still go on the cruise. My commuting buddy all in NY who worked in my building and I start talking and he actually worked with a girl that was supposed to get married. I knew her name and where she was from it was the same girl. I was at a networking event in NYC with a guy from Perth Australia who married a woman from Scranton Pennsylvania and her family and my college friends family from Scranton or actually best friends. A second cousin is a veterinarian and I was at a cocktail party with people who are vets from Australia in NY they who knew my cousin because they wanted to work with him in Florida. He is renowned animal cancer specialist.

Link to Dad

My father had passed away just a few months prior when one evening my husband and I were chatting with an older gentleman at our church in south Texas, someone whom I knew casually by sight, no more. My husband asked him where he was from, and he named a small town in Kansas. The name of the town meant nothing to me, but Kansas certainly did. "My family lived in (small college town), Kansas, until I was eight!" I said. "You're kidding," he said, "that's where I went to college." I looked at him again, trying to guess his age. "You may have known my father; he was a professor there in the 1950s and 1960s," I said. "What was your father's last name?" he asked. So I told him, and his jaw dropped. "(full name) was your father?" "Yes," I said. It turned out that he didn't just know my father-- my father had been his major professor for four years. He had been to my family's house. He had taken a class from my mother. He knew my older siblings as children.

Sun Rise

Shortly after I got up this morning, the sun rose. And I can do that almost every day.

Young Actor

It was around April 2011, I went to Xiamen, China with some classmates to join a summer immersion program that would help us enhance our Mandarin and Chinese knowledge. I come all the way from the Philippines and I was an incoming junior student at that time. While we had all sorts of subjects to help us learn non/academically, we would have more relaxing days. Like one afternoon, April 16th to be exact, our Lao Shi (teacher) finished 2 hours before dismissal and she urged us to do something else but leave class. One colleague suggested we watch a movie, to which LaoShi agreed. Afterall, she brought her USB which contained a few movies to choose from. As a class, the majority voted for the movie “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, a Thai romcom that broke internet at that time. I was a passive one since I was outdated with anything web-related. The movie played and everyone just focused and laughed their hearts out. Watching it for the first time, I could never forget that moment I randomly whispered to my seatmate, he (Mario Maurer, lead actor) certainly looks similar with our own local actor AJ Perez.

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