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!

family history

I was born 1941and moved from the north of england to Derbyshire 50 years ago, and was given the names of 5 octogenarians and 1 nonagenerian who may remember my grandparents after they moved into this tiny village in the north of england in 1903. I was to meet up with someone who would introduce me to these 'old folks' but first I decided to seek out a shop or store to buy some sustenance. About 5miles away I found an Asda store and drove into the library car park instead of Asda's. I saw an old lady on her own who had just come from the library and was on her way to Asda. I asked her if she thought it was OK to leave my car there. She said she thought so, so we walked to the store together and chatted. She was very interested in my family history and when I asked her name...Mrs Fowler...she was the name on top of my list and lived across the road from where my grandma and grandad used to live, always had. And she remembered me as a child staying with my grandma, grdad, aunt and uncle. Coincidence or what?

cars and spells and sunshine!!!

Back in the 90s I had a friend whose pride and joy was an ancient Austin Cambridge (wot a coincidence!! - that's not it) which he polished and loved. He worked for a courier firm. One day at his depot he watched from the office window as a lorry ploughed into his van. When he got back home that evening he discovered that the woman across the road had missed the clutch, slammed on the accelerator and ploughed into his beloved Austin at exactly the same time. I thought not being in two car accidents at once was quite impressive. Another - when I was interested in magic ('the manipulation of coincidence' as Crowley once put it) as a student - I had a row with a girl (Linda) in the flat one night and next morning being up early and finding her handbag in the kitchen I put it on the table with all the cutlery in a circle pointing at it, muttered a bit of hocus pocus, incense on the cooker etc. Rick came in and started laughing at me, which was fair enough. Then Linda came downstairs with blood on her face wailing (strong Welsh accent) 'I cut myself in bed!!

Pin Number

About three years ago I had to replace a debit card which I then received a PIN number for. I already had a favourite PIN number so was going to change whatever my new PIN would be for the favourite. However much to my surprise, the new PIN number was the same as my favourite one. This initially made me think that the bank had published my existing PIN but I checked with them and they assured me it was random. No need to change the PIN though!

Henry T

On a flight from London to Johannesburg in 1987 I sat next to two brothers who were heading home to Nairobi for the Christmas holidays. They said their name was G, and we talked about school, I being a teacher. I flew on to Johannesburg, and a few days later to Cape Town to visit my younger niece. We went up Table Mountain, walked around and went to the restaurant. A lady approached and said rather hesitantly "Mr T? It's Poppy G." Not a name to forget, and I remembered her well as a matron at the school where I taught. We talked about the school, and after a while the thought struck me: "You haven't got any relatives in Nairobi by any chance?" "Yes", she replied, "My nephew lives there; he has two sons, at school in England...."

A life-long number

My wife was born on 26th January. She graduated and married when she was 26. Our eldest child was born on 26th August. The house we bought (and still live in ) is No.26. She retired after 26 years service in her post. The first new car we could afford had the registration WEP 52T (2 X 26). She happens to be the second child of her father who was born on 13th September. (26/2). Thus the number 26 and its multiples seem to have played a significant part in her life. V. J. P

Shared Birthday and Three Christian Names

Hi there, While 'doing our family tree' recently I found the following from unrelated parts of our family tree Kenneth Alexander Edward James W (born 11 December 1948) Alexander Edward James H (born 11 December 1999) Three Christian names in common AND in the same order AND the same birthday!!! What are the chances of that??? Family tree available on request.

Undelivered parcel

We had been waiting for a parcel to be delivered to our remote address in the far north of Caithness. We wanted it for Christmas but it never arrived. On Jan 5th this year I had a doctor's appointment and was the only person in the waiting room when a man emerged from the dispensary and asked me to confirm my name. I did and he said 'well then I have a parcel for you' I was rather taken aback by this as I had never seen this man before and he said 'the lady behind the counter told me who you were and where you lived but I have no idea how to get there! It turned out he was a replacement for our usual courier whom was on holiday for the Xmas period and this was his first time in the area! I said without this chance meeting I doubt you would have found us before midday! My doctor was astounded when I related the story.

Same Amount

In 2005, preparing for a family barbecue I called at Sainsbury's and bought a selection of meat, paying with my bank debit card. On the way out I called at the supermarket's petrol station and filled up, paying with my Co-op credit card. At the end of the month, checking off my receipts against my bank statement and a few days later my credit card statement, I discover that both amounts are exactly the same: £38.64p.

Travel between Liverpool and London - 19th & 20th C

Hi I heard you are compiling coincidences. I was asked to search my Liverpool Mother in Laws side of the family on line. We have lived in East Ham, London E6 for 33 years. I found her Great Grandad and his brother in the 1841 census ( both shipwrights in Liverpool) and followed them through 1851,1861,181, 1881(by whichtime her gt grandad was in a workhouse and gt uncle had moved to London (Poplar Docks). By 1891 the former was dead and the latter had a family and a servant.By 1901 the first window told us he had moved to East Ham(we got interested and thought we might know the 67 street he lived in....) We searched further and found that he lived in our own Central Park Road, and was the first owner of no 33; at the other end of the road (situated between where two of my wifes brothers have lived in recent years). There must be hiundreds of Victorian roads in East Ham, let alone London, so it was quite a long shot.

TRAVELLING DRESS

Some years ago I was walking one quite Sunday afternoon through the streets of Kensington in London with my family and we passed a dress shop. In the window was a white dress decorated with blue dinner-plate size roundels of sailing ships. I admired it and stopped and told my family and we all looked at it and then moved on and forgot about it. Three months later I was sent to work in Singapore and when settled in I gave a party. Guests included my English neighbour who brought his girl-friend. Looking at her I suddenly realised the dress seemed familiar. I asked her where she acquired it and it was indeed in Kensington, the one that had caught my eye six months earlier.

Pages