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!

Portugal luxembourg scotland

I worked for four years in Luxembourg. My hobby was playing violin in the local orchestra. I had a colleague/friend in my work in a bank who is french. I returned to Scotland and joined my excellent church choir. A year later my choir conductor Richard, went to work in Portugal. One day he noticed some tourists struggling with their street map. He went over to help and they got talking. When Richard said he was from Scotland and a musician the lady tourist said she had a musician friend from Scotland. Richard said my name and Marie Laure was amazed! AS was I when they both contacted me independently to tell me of their chance meeting.

Weird insurance quote

Several years ago, I phoned an insurance company for a quote for my car. It was about lunchtime and it was the first time I had contacted the company. The salesperson asked for my name and when I gave it she said that she already had all my details on screen, together with the quote. When I asked how could that be she said I had phoned earlier in the day. When I denied this she insisted I had. It turned out that another person with both my name and my exact date of birth (day, month and year) had phoned that morning. The details were his. My wife insists that many people must have the same name and date of birth but I disagree. And obviously it is weird that my namesake and I should both have contacted the company for a quote on the same day.

Meeting by chance

June 1975 -I had been asked by my firm to start up a long haul holiday department. Part of the training was a familiarisation trip to Canada and bus to US so that the girls would get some experience of two gateway airports and interstate travel. Out to Toronto and back via New York As the girls were leaving I said--If you see my sister in Canada give her my love-The bus from Toronto pulled in at a roadside diner for breakfast The waitress said to the girls--You guys from England? Yes we are. Where from? Just outside Birmingham She said my brother lives up there Oh does he, what's his name She said John Gidding----That,s our boss, What a surprise. My sister recently beraeved and left with no assets had taken a job to get through.

Best friends turn out to be cousins

My husband's 6 year old granddaughter, living in Hackney had her best friend from school home to her birthday party. Casual conversation between parents revealed that granddaughter's friend's grandmother was and is cousin to my husband so the little girls are third cousins. My husband and his cousin haven't met for over 20 years, live in different parts of the country, and their children have never met. It was pure chance that the conversation led to realising the relationship. How could it happen that two little girls are at the same school, in the same year group, become good friends, and turn out to be related?

identical phone numbers

I was about to visit Los Angeles, USA in 1980. I asked our secretary for the phone number of the hotel that we were booked into so that family could reach me. She said "(code for los angeles) 624 1011" I said "No, 624 1011 is my home phone number (in Kilburn, London Nw6)" She said "it IS los angeles 624 1011!" The phone numbers were the same.

Conception Coincidence

Myself and my partner have two children, now aged 4 and 6. In a Civil Partnership, we each carried one of the girls who were conceived using IUI and donor sperm. Given the medicalisation of the start to our family, we know the exact day each child was conceived - the oldest on September 21st 2004, the youngest on November 20th 2006. The first coincidence comes with the fact that my partner conceived our eldest on her best friend Charlotte's birthday. The next coincidence comes with the fact that I conceived our youngest on my best friend Rosie's birthday. The biggest coincidence of all comes with the fact that we each conceived at exactly the same age: 31 years, 3 months and 13 days!

Funeral in Melbourn.

We were attending a funeral in Melbourn and walking out of the churchyard on the way to the nearby burial ground. The path was near the road that had traffic lights at the junction. The lights were red and a mini drew up, its number plate was KJH the initials of the deceased.

old neighbour

In June 2009 I while travelling on The Dubrovnik airport bus to Gruz the ferry harbour I met a lady who I recognised as living in the same street as me 50 years ago. She still lived there while i had moved to another part of the country. In mid 2011 for the first time I look in the obituary section of my hometown paper to find she had died that week.

Dates coincidence

I was born 28 November 1962 - a week late, in Bromley, Kent. When I was 32, I bought an old piano stool/seat in Lewisham. It had a cushioned seat. In 2008, the seat of the stool tore. Inside there were dozens of tightly-rolled pages of a newspaper that made the 'filling'. It was the Daily Mirror - dated 27 February 1962. The period between 27 February - 28 November is 39 weeks. 38 weeks is the average pregnancy + 1 week (my 'week late') = 39 weeks. I could have been conceived on the day the paper was printed. Of course, this can never be proved. I still have the newspaper. My father can testify I was a week late...and of course I have my birth certificate. Thank you.

Years of coincidences

I have lived in and around Norwich in Norfolk for many years now, but was born and spent my early years, until my mother died, in Africa. My father then had to bring me and my brother back to England where we lived for several years in Cambridge with our aunts and uncle (Dad's siblings) and I went to school in Cambridge. It was only by 'chance' that I came to live in Norwich when a college course I wanted to do after I left school could not be held in the expected town due to lack of numbers but the course was available at Norwich City College. I say all this because the following coincidences centre around me being in Norwich. The most extraordinary coincidences, occurring over a period of years, involved my friend Anna from Utah. We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ('Mormons') and keen on doing family history. In the mid-1970s Anna was sent from Utah to Norwich as a missionary for our church, and coincidentally several of her ancestors came from this area.

Pages