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!

Call of death

My father passed away 35 years ago, was buried in the local cemetery and the grave number turned out to be 9134 - the same as the last four digits of our telephone number.

Meeting Stranger Twice

On a recent flight I was sitting beside a lady who was on my left hand side. Flight passed fine and I went to the hotel at the destination. Next morning while having breakfast I looked left and there she was at the next table we were flabbergasted.

Our 10 year death date coincidence

My nana died 9 November 1988; my grandad died 9 November 1998; my dad died 18 November 2008 and my brother died 18 December 2018

Roulette

</p> <p>My "system " was to bet on the reoccurring numbers.<br /> If , say, 7 has just come, I will put (minimal bet ) on it, if it wins (chance 1/37 , alright, I put it again. )<br /> If 7 has not won and the winning number is, say, 10, I put on 7 and 10 in the next game, if one of them wins, I start the game anew with putting on the number which has just won, if none of them has won and the actual winning number was, say, 21 I put may bets on 7, 10, 21 in the next game and so on as long as one of the numbers has won. Of course, after the sixth game ( if none of the numbers has won, you have to double, triple etc. your stake, later in order to gain profit on the undertaking... ) </p> <p> I had hard luck that day, ... It was more than the 12th game - MOST PROBABLY THE 13TH , but I am not absolutely sure of this - and none of my numbers had come out. I had not doubled or tripled or quadrupled the stakes ... It was not about to win (to gain profit ) any more; I wanted to see what is going to happen on this uncanny day.

Eerie Sequence of Events Three Years Apart

On April 1 2016, I was laid off from my job. Around the same time, I found out the guy I had been dating for 9 months was seeing another woman. A couple of weeks after that, on my way to an appoint at a place we will call RW, I received a call that my father had passed (a few weeks before Father's Day), shortly after a small decorative dish fell off the counter and broke. On April 2, 2019, I was laid off from my job. Around the same time, I found out my ex, who was my best friend and I thought we were getting back together, was seeing another woman. A couple of weeks later, on my way to an appointment at RW, I found out my mom had unexpectedly passed (a few weeks before Mother's Day), shortly after a small decorative dish fell off the counter and broke.

True Love?

I was 21. There was a concert happening in my local area, and my friend insisted we go to it. I had never actually heard of the band and was unsure if I should go. But she talked me into it and I was excited since they were apparently very popular. After the concert had ended, the drummer (Benji) came up to me and handed me his drumstick and wanted me to have it. It sparked a conversation between us. He then introduced me to his bandmate (Phil), to which I waved hello to and disappeared back onto the bus. When they left, Benji and I kept in touch for 6+ months. It ended, and within a period of time I received a message from his bandmate, Phil, that I waved to a year ago; I was unsure he even saw who I was since he left so quickly, but sure enough, he remembered me. Phil and I continued to talk for the next few years on and off and I considered him to be my first love. We are currently in different states and times, but throughout our relationship, there were so many coincidences where during the times we weren't together that I would be watching his favorite movie and he will text me. I would have dreams about him and he would call me.

Bird ringer

My friend Peter, a bird enthusiast, found a dead petrel on Stewart Island off the southern tip of New Zealand. Petrels fly the southern oceans, circumnavigating the globe, stopping occasionally to lay an egg, and bring up a youngster before returning to the oceans.The bird had a ring, which he carefully extracted and sent back to the appropriate record keeping centre. Three months later, his parents (also bird enthusiasts) were attending the sherry party reception for a specialist birders weekend in Aberdeen and met a man who dedicated himself to bird ringing. To cut a long story short, they discovered to their amazement that they were talking to the man who had placed the ring on the very same bird's leg six months earlier ...... in an expedition to Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America !

Telling me something?

This series of happenings took place in roughly a 12 hour span...beginning in the evening and ending the next morning. It was October of 2000 in Virginia when my then girlfriend gave me 2 books for my B-day. One was titled The Celestine Prophecy and the other was The new Rolling Stone encyclopedia of rock and roll. I opened the latter around 9pm that evening and started to read about Bob Marley...a favorite artist of mine. I then put the book down and turned on the tv. I surfed some channels until I landed on a PBS program about..who else..Bob Marley, his music, and Jamaica politics. I thought how weird that was as I was reading about him. I watched for a while then headed to bed. In bed I opened the other book and read some of the first chapter and browsed other aspects of the book. I recall where at one point it talks about coincidences and possible meanings. Again..I was thinking how weird was that! I then hit the hay. The following morning at around 10am I went for a run around a man made lake in Burke Va...I drove there. I walked down toward the trail and began to stretch on the ground.

Notre Dame day

>15th April, 2019 (yesterday ) was my worst day for months, probably for years. I felt physically and psychologically absolutely down. I was to lie on a field motionless for I don´t know how long, as if someone was about to die. Late in the afternoon I decided to go to a church to confess ( what I had not done for a long time ). I entered the nearby Catholic Church at appr. 18. 00, confessed and remained seated in a bank staring and semi-consciously listening what the priest was to say. I left at appr. 19.00. The first news I learned was that the Notre Dame. was burning; the fire started while I was in the Catholic Church . Even more thought-provoking could be the fact that I started the day with guitar-playing. I played loudly, window open, the famous song of the German Protestant Revolution. (later sung by nationalistic as well as by socialistic movements ). (It was not only this song I was playing, but this was the one that I played the loudest, repetitively and at last. I was singing it even later, on my bike. ) "Spearmen ho! Forward go! On the castle roof let the Red Cock crow Spearmen ho!

Met again

While I was a child I spent one of my school holidays in Oman at the beach and we met a fellow German, elderly lady and spent some time talking. Couple months later I was at a friend's place who was invited to his grandma's birthday and took me along. Arriving at his grandma's place I found her to be the lady from the beach in Oman.

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