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!

catherine H

In 1986 we moved house and already had a cottage in Cornwall. Our neighbours in both houses were named David and Jutta. Jutta is not a particularly common German name. In both cases they had one daughter and a cat. The daughters were much the same age but called a different name! Jutta still lives next door to us at home, sadly her David died. The Jutta in Cornwall took her daughter and went back to live in Germany and a divorce ensued. Still quite a coincidence.

Switzerland

1. In the 1960's we had one of the very first Mini Coopers. Climbing a pass in The Swiss Alps the clutch failed. I allowed the car to free wheel down the pass into Italy. The first garage we saw sold Morris Minis. The mechanics had heard about Mini Coopers but had never seen one. They took two hours to repair the clutch, test drove it a terrifying speeds and made no charge. We never saw another Mini show room during our entire stay in Switzerland and Italy. 2. Touring Switzerland one year in the late 1960's we stopped at a very small cafe a few miles from Lake Lucerne. We found the cafe had a few rooms to let and decided to stay there overnight. When we signed the guest book we were amazed to see that my parents had stayed there a few weeks previously. We were certain of it because of our unusual surname. We hadn't even known my parents were in Switzerland; we had thought they were in France. My father had left a pair of pyjamas in the bed. He was amazed when we returned them to him.

Phone coincidence. [Readers Digest 1950's]

A man working in a city office developed a bad headache and left early for home. While travelling he stopped off at a roadside chemist's shop to buy some medication. It was in a suburb where he had never previously stopped. While waiting to be served the shop phone rang [pre-mobiles] and the assistant asked if there was a Mr ' John Blank' in the shop as his wife wished to speak to him. The man was amazed but admitted to being 'John Blank.' He protested that this was an impossibility but took the call anyway. It was indeed his wife and when he asked how she knew where he was she replied that she had dialled the office number as usual. She had misdialled and reached her husband purely by chance.

Cambridge coincidence quite literally [et al.]

I have a Cambridge coincidence for you, quite literally!! I also have several other coincidences I can relate. 1) My grandparents lived in Barton Road, Cambridge in the 40s and into the 50s and I visited them from time to time. Since 1972 I have been living either in Portsmouth itself or nearby. I used to be a member of the Anglican cathedral congregation. I got to know the chaplain to Portsmouth Grammar School and found out that he had been educated at Cambridge. Nothing at all out of the ordinary about that. I also found out that he was a Cambridge townsman, i.e. had been born there. Still nothing extraordinary. We then got talking one day and he mentioned he had been born in Barton Road. Quite a coincidence! What number? The same number as my grandparents! Now that was a coincidence!! I was myself born in Cambridge in what was then, for a while, a nursing home. My other coincidences almost all also relate to my time in Portsmouth 2) I used to work in the University Library. My most noteworthy coincidence (to me) happened while visiting my roots and my relatives in East Anglia, not in Cambridge but near Bury St. Edmunds.

birthtime, date, weight coincidence

My grandson was born on 6th October, at 6.10 a.m., and weighed 6lb 10oz Sincerely, Anne B

unlikely?

I recently attended pre admission tests at a local clinic. The nurse asked what my surname was. Hers was the same. My christian name is Michael. Hers was Michelle. When I told her that my date of birth was 6th May she told me that that was her date of birth. The only difference was the year.

Fastest milkfloat in the West

My father and his brother were driving. My father told his brother that someone had created a vehicle called "The fastest milkfloat in the West" by putting a Chevy V8 engine in the back of it. His brother refused to believe him. Later during that same car journey, a vehicle over took them. It had the modified milkfloat on the back, with the paint job my dad had seen in a magazine a while before, and the Chevy V8 exhaust pipes clearly on display!

(1)shared birthdays (2)unexpected meeting

My neighbour and I share a remarkable series of birthday dates: 1. She and I are exactly 1 week apart. 2. Her (late) husband and my brother share 6th June. 3. My daughter and her son share 9th June. 4. My other daughter and her daughter share 25th November. 5. Her mother and my granddaughter share 30th November. Unexpected meeting: Pam and I live in the same village in Somerset, but our paths rarely cross, apart from when we consulted her about a forthcoming visit to South Africa, where she used to live. So we knew she would be in Cape Town at the same time in January 2009, but did not arrange to meet. As we explored the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, there she was! We had a coffee and remarked on the coincidence, but barely saw her during the rest of the year. However, we enjoyed South Africa so much that we decided to visit again in 2010 to see other areas but finishing up in Cape Town. Kirstenbosch was well worth a second visit, so off we went again, and could not believe our eyes when we spotted her again!

Birthday coincidence

I've recently been able to establish my Great-great-grandmother's date of birth (prior to BMD registration), which was 28th August 1815. What makes this remarkable is that her great-granddaughter (my mother) was born 28th August 1915 - 100 years exactly! Andrew

Gallery Chance Meeting

In July 2011, I was visiting the Museum of Art in Philadelphia on my first visit to the United States. One small gallery is dedicated to new acquisitions. I believe I was the only person in this gallery when my sister-in-law's brother and his partner walked in. They live near my brother and his wife in a village in North Norfolk, U.K. I was staying with friends in Philadelphia. When I returned to their house that evening, the 'Philadelphia Enquirer' had on the front page a picture of a painting the Museum had just acquired and of the precise spot where we had chanced to meet. (Unknown to me, my sister-in-law's brother's partner was in the U.S.A. to visit her son who lives in Vermont.)

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