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!

Jesus and Mithras

Both were the messiah.Both had 12 diciples.Both were born of a virgin. Both had wise men bearing gifts who followed a star from the East.Both mothers were immaculately conceived. What are the odds on the stories not being based on the same story.

Sharing the same Aunt

I had moved from Scotland to Essex in October 1968 and when my Essex born wife was having our first child in Chelmsford, St John’s Hospital on Nov 9, 1974 there seemed to be an element of co-incidence with the lady in the next bed, a Mrs F who too was an English lady and also had a child on the same day. My wife rang me to say the while chatting to this lady she said her husband too was Scottish – and on being asked if she had ever visited Scotland, my wife said that she had and went to visit (among others) his “old Aunt Meg in Bowling” – a small town between Glasgow and Dumbarton. Interestingly, this other lady said that her husband too had an “old Aunt Meg in Bowling” so both husbands were asked to visit that evening at the same time. It seemed impossible that two English mothers meeting in a maternity hospital 400 miles from where their husbands came from could possibly share the same aunt. At the evening visit I met her husband, Willie F, and it appeared that indeed we both shared the same aunt. He was related to my aunt’s Husband – my uncle Iain - and my aunt Meg was my Mother’s sister.

Breakfast conversation

I was staying overnight with a friend I made some years ago and she had invited an old friend of hers at the same time. Over breakfast we were talking about co-incidences and 6th sense. That conversation over with, I was telling them about my husband and my planned holiday to Portugal later that month. The other ladies were then laughing over the co-incidence, as they had met working as holiday reps in Portugal - and of course we had been speaking about co-incidences. However, they asked me where we would be staying and I said Lagos and they were amazed as that was their resort so when I told them we would be at the Hotel Lagos they were even more amazed as that is where my friend had been based and as I recall that is where the travel company they represented had their offices.

Former Home

I grew up in Lytham St Annes. 50 years later I booked self catering accommodation on line to return there to see my old school, tend my grandparents grave etc. The address of the property meant nothing but on arrival I realised it was where I had lived with my parents, now both deceased, when I was 7. Shortly afterwards we moved to another house in Lytham. Although not absolutely sure I think I had the same bedroom I had as a child. Susan.

Lost Purses

As a boy my husband and his family always holidayed in a small Welsh coastal town. He and his brother were walking along the stretch of sand dunes looking for golf balls from the adjacent links. They found a small purse containing a few coins and a slip of paper with the name of the owner and a local address, also a holiday cottage. When returning it to the address the recipient was pleased but puzzled and explained that she had lost a purse that day but this one was one she had lost the previous year. They laughed over the coincidence -- but on walking back the two boys found the other one also -- stuck in some marram grass.

The chorister coincidence

While in RAF, I was posted to Berlin, RAF Gatow. My wife and I moved to a married quarter on base and in the first days of our tour we discovered that the wife of our neighbour had gone to the same school as me, give or take a year or so. This was quite coincidental. But, a few weeks later my parents arrived to visit and as my mother went into the garden, over the fence, our neighbour's wife piped up with "I know that voice..." and strangely, it turned out that she and my mother had been members of the same church choir, over 18 years previously. Our neighbour had not connected the names before that moment, but both ladies and the rest of us were quite stunned by the occasion.

sun and moon

I have always thought that one of nature's greatest coincidences is the fact that when the moon passes in front of the sun, the relative distances are such that the discs are of almost identical size when viewed from earth, thus enabling us to see the outer corona of the sun. I am not aware of any physical square-law or such-like which explains why this should be so. V J P

From Next door to Loch Lomond - via Australia

When I was in my mid-teens (early 80s) , we spent a family holiday touring around Scotland in August with our family caravan. We had stopped in a decent layby by Loch Lomond to take in the sights - and make a cuppa in the back of the caravan too! As a bored teen I was moping in the caravan and my parents were standing outside when they suddenly started saying hello to some other family and were very excited - and amazed. Because they had bumped into the people who lived next door to them then Mum and Dad first were married and they moved before I was born - to Australia - and were back for a holiday. An absolute cooincidence that they were in Scotland at the same time and then to be in the same layby, at the same time was amazing!!

GREYHOUND CRASH

In the USA the Greyhound Coaches are a popular and extensive means of travel. They have a very high safety record so it was a most unfortunate coincidence that the very first time I used one on my first visit to the States we crashed. It was on the New York-Philadelphia road one wet day and I suddenly felt the coach go out of control and start to skid. We did this for quite a way then hit another vehicle. It was not serous and no one was hurt and there must have been something wrong with that stretch of the road as several other vehicles skidded there as we waited to be collected. The poor driver, who had a 15 years safe-driving badge on his sleeve, said he was sure he would lose his job as Greyhound always sacked anyone who hit another vehicle.

Same Address 20 yrs apart

2 yrs ago my second wife and I retired or so we thought to France, after 6 months we ran out of money and I came back to work. I stayed with friends for about 3 months and then looked for a place of my own. I went to see a shared house but wasn't impressed. I went to look at a bedsit but the owner didn't turn up, so third time luck I went to see another bedsit in Bristol. It was perfect so I moved in. When I told my wife she said something about the address rang a bell but couldn't think what it was. I then had the chance to move to the top of the house with the only balcony, No 12. I told my wife about the change of rooms and she suddenly remembered that 20 yrs ago, one her 4 daughters stayed in the same house and in the SAME ROOM while at Bristol University!

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