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!

Arriving simultaneously after 5 hours travel

My partner and I decided to celebrate my birthday with a few winter days in Amsterdam. We drove for an hour to Bristol Airport and waited 2 hours before flying for about an hour to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, one of Europe's largest with 165 boarding/arrival gates. Once off the plane we had a 10-15 walk to baggage reclaim before buying train tickets to Amsterdam Centraal Station, a 15 minute train ride away. The railway station is immediately below the airport's concourse with a number of escalators down to the platforms. There are 7 trains per hour from Schiphol to Amsterdam from various platforms. When the train arrived it was a double-decker train (common in Holland). We chose the closest door to get into a non-smoking carriage (this was 2002) and chose to go upstairs. We walked towards the middle of the carriage and sat down. As the train pulled out of the station a man's voice was calling the name of my partner. The man and his wife had boarded the same non-smoking carriage as us (despite them being smokers) from doors at the opposite end to the doors we chose and they had also chosen to go upstairs.

Draw

At a dinner on Thursday 12th January 2012 44 people attended. A draw for a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of wine was organised. Tickets were a pound each or 3 for 2 pound. Most people bought 3 tickets. the draw was made and 186 was picked out and the guy sitting opposite me won. The second ticket was drawn and 187 came out, same chap had this winning ticket and asked for it to be drawn again as he had the bottle of whiskey so a third ticket was drawn and 188 came out, again for the same chap. This was witnessed by 43 guests at the function. Keith E

Sibling birthday

I was born on the same day as my brother who is 3 years older than me.

car registration

I am a member of a local amateur theatre. I noticed today that another member and I both own BMW cars (different models) with identical (apart from the last letter) registration numbers.

SHARED BIRTHDAYS

We have four sons and the youngest two were born on the same day, within ten minutes of the same time but four years apart. Coincidently, my sister's second husband, an American, also shares the same birthday; 14th May.

family birthdays

My granddaughter was born on the same day, 21 February, as both her grandfathers.

3 brothers meeting up in bar in WW1

I have a family story about my grandfather, William Penn b 1875, meeting up with his 2 younger brothers, Charles Penn & Arthur Penn, all from different army groups, in a bar in France during WW1, when none of them knew the others were in the area - can you imagine their joy AND they all survived the war!

Neighbours share birthdays

I and my near neighbour gave birth to our two children within a couple of weeks of each other. The coincidence is that my first child was born on my neighbour's birthday, and her second child was born on mine. Makes things a bit awkward when we want to hold children's birthday parties, very inconsiderate of her.

Holiday meeting

About 10 years ago we were holidaying in South Africa. We were driving from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town and saw a sign for a small remote nature reserve so on impulse decided to stop and have a walk. It was a sunday and there were a lot of people there. Whilst walking back from a view point we bumped into a colleage of my husbands who taught at the same school as him in Oxfordshire, she was on holiday as well. Then 3 years later we were on holiday in China and on our first night there we were having dinner in an extremely large tourist hotel when in came the same teacher also on holiday. We haven't met her again in any unusual or strange places but you never know they say things come along in threes.

birthday (and death) coincidence

On my father's side, my grandfather was born on 11 June, my grandmother on 11August, my uncle on 11 October and my Aunt 11 January. My father was expected on 11 April but arrived on 6 April - but strangely, died on 11 August, his mother's birthday.

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