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!

Ms M Lee

Actually three In 1986 I took over a research post from a man who had the same birthday as me. My daughter married a man whose birthday is on the anniversary of her father's/my husband's death. On 14th Jan, I spoke to a friend who had just returned from a holiday that I had planned to join her on. My plans had to change. She went ahead and we spoke on her return this weekend. She told me that, at the swimming pool in her hotel, she had met the twin-sisters of my university room mate. She did not know this room-mate. At that moment I had not read an email received the previous day from the room-mate. . Both the reported conversation and the email mentioned together visiting the new home of one of the twins.

Strange words coinciding

Recently more and more I have noticed that as I have been writing, reading or saying words they have simultaneously cropped up . Just the other evening I was looking at my bookcase and got the notion to pull out an old red book. It was a copy of Black Beauty I was given as a little girl, nearly 50 years ago. As I started to read the first paragraph I read"water-lilies" and a split second after that I heard the narrator on a tv nature show saying "water-lilies"

Husband's Lover

Three years ago my husband left me for another woman. He was a self employed saddler. When later clearing out the garage I came across an old telephone notepad, it was over ten years old. On the page it was open was a message from the woman who would become his lover many years in the future.

Various hard to believe

Reading the article in the News paper Mail on Sunday about this website and having had many strange coincidences happen to me over the years I decided to go online to share one of them with you. I started to look for a pair of scissors to cut out the part of the article in the paper with the web site address on it but could not find them or a pen and paper to note it down so I started to rip that part of the page out. My wife , sitting across the room asked what I was doing and when I explained she said I hope you are not tearing out an article I want to take to work to show a friend about red plates at mealtimes helping people lose weight. Without batting an eyelid I answered not to be silly as the paper has nearly 100 pages in it and its hardly going to be on this page...then I stopped in amazement as I noticed the article she was referring to was next to the one on coincidences and I had completely torn through it!! I have kept the bits of the paper as it was just so unusual. </p> <p>Years ago we had two cocker spaniel they were called SOPHIE and LUCY. We were flying off on holiday and had put them into kennels for the first time.

Phone call coincidence

This happened a few years ago: I decided to call my friend Lydia for a chat. I dialled the number and a female voice (who I didn't recognise) said "hello". I was slightly confused but said "er hello, is Lydia there please?" The female voice sounded even more confused than I and said "erm, sorry, who's calling?". I was rather put out by being asked by this person who I didn't even know who I was but replied "It's Kerry". A short while later, another female voice came on the line and said "Hello, Lydia here". I said "that's not Lydia" and laughed. There then followed an extremely bizarre conversation until we finally established what had happened: I had actually misdialled my friend's number (by one digit), the house I had called was owned by a lady who had a visitor that day. That visitors name was Lydia! What a freaky coincidence!

Surprise meeting

Sept. 2011. Husband's birthday. On holiday, sitting one morning in tiny cove on Italian Lake Lecco. Spied by young architect nephew from Melbourne Australia on self-guided tour of European buildings. Neither knew of the other's plans. Joined us for celebration dinner!

Mike

On the subject of coincidences- My father worked in a garage in Ware in Hertfordshire. In the 1950’s a friend of his decided to sell his dry cleaning business and emigrate to Vancouver in order to start a real estate business. He decided to take his TR2 sports car to Canada. He then asked my father to install a heater in the car. He said to his friend’ ”So that you do not lose my address and name I will scratch it on the heater body( which was under the hood).” The friend then traveled across Canada and stopped for fuel at a small garage , approximately halfway into his journey. He then asked the attendant to fill up and also check the oil level. He opened the hood and stared into the engine compartment and his friend thought that something was amiss. He went around to the front of the car where the attendant was pointing at the heater. Where he said,” I know that man, I used to work with him.” Soon after he wrote to my father saying,” There is a job for you if you wish to come to Canada.” He was the owner of the garage. Such a small world!!!

Missed reunion

In June 1971 I went on holiday with my sister, her husband and their 2 children. We travelled from Manchester to Torquay - quite a long journey at the time. I was nearly 13, my sister, a lot older, was 30. Her young son, then one year old was a baby who cried a lot. He was getting better but she kept him in a good routine and so every day left the beach just after lunch and returned to the guest house. She would sleep at the same time as my young nephew. One day as we returned at about 4 pm - me, my brother, brother-in-law and 2 and a half year old niece, my sister told us she'd had a really disturbing dream - about an old friend of hers - someone she'd been inducted into her first job with at the age of 15. She hadn't seen her for years. In the dream my sister had woken up and looked out of the window into the back garden of the property. The back gate had opened and staggering up the path, using 2 sticks and looking very unwell was this old friend. What could it mean, she asked.

Mr Martin Riley

I had dropped off my daughter at Heathrow and had a few hours to kill before collecting my mother at the same airport Rather than spend the time at the airport as it was a bright summer morning I drove to WIndsor parked the car and went for a walk along the river. I switched on my mobile phone to check for any messages and saw the first one was from the wife of my best friend from my university years but we only see them now once or twice a year.It was still only about 9am by this time as my daughters flight to Moscow had necessitated an early start and so I hesitated to contact my friends wife so early on a Sunday morning. But the message began HELP and went on to explain she had lost our home phone number which she needed. My instinctive reaction was to call her and react to the word HELP. I did so and she answered but she had no recollection of sending this text message and had certainly not done so recently It transpired that she had sent the message but two years previously and it had been lost somewhere in the ether until the moment Iswitched on my mobile on that particular day at that moment.

Mrs. Deike Begg

I have written a book: Synchronicity -- The Promise of Coincidence, also known as meaningful coincidences (an acausal principle), first so coined by C.G Jung in 1929. You will find many story therein. There are already ample books on the subject. Bill Bryson is a good source. D. Begg

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