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!

Birthday coincidences

My sister and I are born on my dad's birthday but two years apart- 14th may 1947, 1975 and 1977 and my youngest children are born on the same day, two years apart 2nd April 2007 and 2009.

Jersey Boys Show and CD

This week I went to see the Jersey Boys Show in the West End with a friend. The next time I met my friend was two days later. We went for a coffee as we set down some music came on, it was the soundtrack to the show!

Two old friends and neighbours

I was on a nearly deserted beach in Southern Italy in mid-May four years ago having lunch at an otherwise customer empty beach bar. A couple, strangers to us, walking along the beach saw us and that the beach bar was open and came in for their lunch. We talked over lunch and walked back with them to the village of San Marco di Castellabate at one end of the beach. They were staying at the hotel we usually stay at in September but for this visit we were staying at a hotel in the village, by the harbour/marina. They joined us for a coffee on our hotel beach. During conversation I mentioned that our hotel was quiet at that time of year apart from a coach party from Germany and a retired Italian army officer reunion - both very jolly groups - although an English couple had arrived the previous evening. I further mentioned that this couple came from Surrey, near Coulsdon and the husband had a career with a particular organisation. The couple we had just met said that for ten years until thirty years ago they had next door neighbours in the West Country , the husband had worked for the same organisation and they had moved to Surrey.

Mrs. Thatcher

Two men entered our little shop. One of them kept my elderly mother talking/distracted whilst the other slipped out, entered the kitchen thro' a separate door and stole her handbag. It was quite a loss because it contained money, her keys and credit card. There was in our village a friend and keen fisherman. One day, months later he was fishing six miles upstream from our village, when he hooked something large and inert. On landing the object it turned out to be a handbag and with further investigation a set of keys and a credit card was discovered---the card revealed that the bag belonged to my mother. It was returned to her rather soggy and muddy but sadly by then both card and keys had to be replaced. The thieves must have lobbed the bag over the nearest bridge when making their escape only being interested in ready cash.

time, date, year

On 20th November 2011 I was having a meal with my grandson (he's 27). He asked me what the date was. I said 20.11. Then I said it's actually 20.11 2011 and if it were 11 minutes past 8 it would be 20.11 20.11 2011. We both looked at the time on his phone and yes - it was 20.11.

Kurt Atterberg's Second Symphony

I'd always loved the symphonies of Swedish composer Kurt Atterberg, especially the Second Symphony. For some years I had thought of getting a complete set of the recordings. Eventually I ordered the boxed set from Amazon. It arrived on December 12th 2011. I looked through the booklets and discovered that December 12th was also Atterberg's birthday. Then, reading the notes about the Second symphony, I found that its first performance was also on December 12th. (Incidentally, it was composed almost exactly 100 years ago, between 1911 and 1912)

meeting old acquaintance

I was a psychiatric student nurse in Salisbury Wilts from 1980-83. In 1982 a Scottish general student nurse called George came onto the ward where I was working to do his psychiatric secondment staying there for 6 weeks. I was his mentor but had no contact with him after he left the unit and neither did I hear anything about him. I later married and moved to a remote area of North-East Scotland. In August 1989 my son came up to visit and we were due to go to Aberdeen but my husband was not very well so instead my son & I decided to go for a drive round. We passed the Battlefield of Culloden and my son thought it would be good to have a look around the site - so we wandered around. Later he wanted the loo but was such a very long time there that I ended up waiting impatiently outside the gents toilet for him and out came George. It was a huge coincidence as George had moved to Australia in 1985 and had met a girl whom he wanted to marry and he had brought her over to Scotland to meet the relatives in Falkirk and to decide if he wanted to take out Australian citizenship.

Pascall sweet factory

In 1998 I needed to find an office in London and visited several premises with an agent. I selected suitable offices at 2 Valentine Place, Blackfriars. The morning I moved in I faxed contact details to my father who 'phoned straight back to say that my great grandfather, James Pascall who started a confectionery business in 1866, had built a sweet factory in the area in the 1890s. I reseached the London Directory and old Ordnace Survey maps in the local library and found that I had actually rented offices in the factory building that my great grandfather had had built in 1897. (It was actually a replacement for the first factory, burnt down by a disgruntled employee, he had built on the site.) Incidentally, the confectinery tradition of the premises continues: Green and Blacks head office is in the same premises today.

parents in coincidence

An old friend went on a trip to Africa for several months. On the same trip were a couple (A+C) from Australia. A year or so later they were doing their overseas experience, living in London not far from us so went to have a meal at their house, where I met them for the first time. I noticed that A had some biscuits with a girl guide badge on them and commented because my mum has been in guiding for years. A's mum was also a guider and was on holiday in the UK. This is a precis of the conversation that ensued: me:" where are they travelling at the moment?" A:" In Cornwall" me "I'm from cornwall, whereabouts are they? A "A place called Falmouth" me: "I'm from Falmouth, where are they staying?" A "With a pen pal called J" At this point I was speechless as they were actually staying with my mother! I knew she had a guiding penpal in australia but had not known they were coming to stay and I didn't know their surname, nor did A know mine at that point.

House Renters

Over 20 years ago, we rented out our house for 6 months when we were working away. My husband met the couple briefly to get a lease signed, then our son was in charge. 3 years ago, I was at a linedancing class in Spain, I heard a lady talking and recognized her accent as being like mine and found out she lived quite near to me in UK. On returning home, I phoned to invite her and her husband round for a drink, I told her where we lived and asked if she knew where our road was. She replied that she did, as they had rented a house there quite some time ago. Of course, it was our house!

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