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!

Telephone advice

When I was a teenager in South Africa in the late '70s, I was travelling to England on holiday with my sister. We were waiting for our flight at Jan Smuts airport in Johannesburg when I decided to phone my best friend in a suburb of jo'burg called Bryanston. Whilst I was chatting to her from the telephone booth, I noticed that the man in the booth next door was struggling to use his phone so I asked my friend to hold on a minute whilst I helped this man(who I did not know!). I asked if I could help him and he was very pleased and said that he was from England and had just arrived in SA and was trying to call a colleague. I said 'ok, which town does he live in? He said 'Johannesburg' do I told him what numbers to dial and asked 'which part of Johannesburg?'. He said 'Sandton'. I said 'oh, I'm on the phone go someone in sandton' and told him what to dial. Then I said 'what part of Sandton?'. He said 'Bryanston' and I replied 'OH, I'm on the phone to someone in Bryanston. Who are you trying to call? He said 'Julian L'.

chance meeting doubled

On holiday with friends who lived two or three streets away, we decided to go on a boat trip. Among passengers disembarking from the boat we were about to board were our next door neighbours. But, what we found really strange, was that these neighbours were also on holiday with friends - and their friends just happened to be the next door neighbours of our friends!

prophetic voice

Amazing, but entirely trivial.........A few weeks ago, I was engrossed in a crossword. The television was on, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, but my daughter had left the room so no-one was watching. I was on my own. The solution to a clue appeared to be a word I rarely come across "barbels" and I was about to look up the spelling when a disembodied voice called out "barbels". It was Buffy's voice.....she was in a gym and was about to use the equipment. How's that for a co-incidence?

Uncanny numbers

I was born on 5.6.56. I received my BA degree on 7.7.77. I got married on Aug 17th 1981, but because it was a Jewish ceremony and the new "day" starts at sunset, then the marriage certificate said 18.8.81. Hmm..........

All the 17's

My mother passed away in 2005 and I remember, after the event, making a phonecall from my home to her private number and talking to my sister who was there at the time. The following morning I flew to England and the same evening I was myself sitting next to my mother's private phone in the nusing home. Just then my wife called my mother's number and we had a conversation. I thought nothing of all this until the phonebill arrived about a month later, back at home. Both calls lasted 17 minutes and 17 seconds............

Same people again

A few years ago I saw 2 people I knew on the same day in different towns. I had worked with both these people in the same office 15 years previously and hadn't seen either of them since..........

Coincidence?

My daughter died in December 1992. At her funeral we sang Jesus loves me. On Christmas day we opened the gifts she had bought us the week before she died. She had bought the records I will always love youngish starts when I must go leaving only memories behind ... On the reverse Jesus loves me. She also bought the record from a distance by Cliff Richard . Her funeral was 3 days before Christmas. Are our lives mapped out for us, I believe everything happens for a reason. Sandra

DVD MOMENT

I have had the DVD 'The Reader" for 3 weeks and haven't got round to viewing it. Last night I packed it in my overnight bag to watch it with friends i am staying with tonight. I checked the TV guide for tonight, and 'The Reader" is on TV tonight, first airing/!

Identical circumstances

I was a police officer and was part of a firearms team in the City of London police. Our driver was born in 1936, some 10 years before me. He told a story of how he, as a 10-year-old, had entered bombed premises, a block of 'flats', about six stories high, and started a fire on a tin tray in the middle of a top floor room, not the fireplace for some obscure reason. There was no intent to damage property, merely keep warm. A police officer had entered the building, they had run out. The building burnt down. </p> <p>When I was the same age I went through the foot tunnel from Greenwich to the Isle of Dogs. There were three small blocks of flats, again 6 stories high, again bomb damaged, just by the exit. I and two friends went into one building, up to the top floor and feeling cold started a fire on - you've probably guessed - a tin tray in the middle of the room.

Neighbours with the same names

As children, we were excited to see that a new family had bought the holiday house next door to ours. It looked like they had children of the same age as us. We ran over and introduced ourselves. My parents names are Rosemary and John, and kids are Melissa, Felicity and Caroline. The new neighbours: Parents names were Rosemary and Michael, the children were Shane (a variation of John), Melissa, Felicity and Susan (with Caroline middle name)

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