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!

South African coincidence

I was visiting South Africa and took an excursion to Cape Point which included a boat trip to Seal Island. On the boat I was standing and seated in front of me was an American Lady of advanced years holding a young dark haired boy of about 2 years. The woman seated beside her commented what a lovely grandson. The American woman explained that she lIved in Brasilia and had adopted the child. I intervened in their conversation and said I have friends in Brasilia who have also adopted a child, their names are Ciro......she said not Ciro and Nicky A. They are my best friends!

A Dream Come True

Some years ago, I dreamt that my boss, who was well in her 40's, got married. I told her the next day. She laughed telling me that she had nobody in her life. Two months later she told me she had met this wonderful man and they were getting married.

Reading at distance

My son was travelling round the world in 2006 and one day rang me up from a hostel in New Zealand. After 20 minutes or so of conversation I casually picked up a book from a bookshelf and at the same time thought I would ask if he had had a chance to read anything on his travels. He replied that he had been at the hostel for a few days and had been reading a certain book from their stock of books. It was exactly the same book that I had casually selected from my bookshelf!

Milkman

We were having a family holiday in the Algarve when the children were young and whilst sunbathing topless on the beach decided to cool off in the sea. As I was walking towards to water I heard a voice say 'hello Mrs R'. I looked up and saw it was my milkman and he wasn't looking at my face!

Apparnt Supernatural Knowledge of a Famous Death

I remember watching the TV series "On the buses" as a kid with my dad, we loved it. For some reason on 16th Nov 2008, I recalled this memory and pondered about Reg Varney and wondered what had become of him since that series. Later, I was rather surprised to discover that he had died that very day ... now that was a surprise because it was the only memory I have of thinking about him that entire year. Now the thought strikes me that such an experience could indeed convince many that something supernatural had happened, but I do not think this is the case for the following reasons. 1) memory can play tricks. I might have recalled him to memory several times, but simply did not remember (can you honestly recall every thought from every day?). the reason I remember this instance was the impact of his death. 2) there is a rather finite number of famous elderly folks. We also have a rather large population in the UK who would remember them. So on every given day, there is a very high chance that a couple of hundred folks (at the very least) are thinking about that famous but elderly actor.

Swedish Flight Singer

Over 10 years ago in Brighton, a friend of mine put me in touch with mutual friend of hers to do some music together. She was a singer, and I played and wrote music a lot at the time. So I phoned her, and we talked for ages on the phone, got really excited by mutual interests, made all these half plans, then of course - did not nothing about it. I also worked at the time for a Swedish company and travelled at strange times to and from Stockholm. About a year after the phone call I was getting a late midweek flight back from Sweden on a nearly empty plane, There were literally 5 people on it, one of whom was a girl sitting just across from me writing in a book. We got talking, I asked to look in the book and saw they were song lyrics she was making up, talked a little more and we both realised we'd talked to each other before! She had decided to go to Stockholm at the last minute on her own, just to have a look for a couple of days. So we had to do some music, and did a couple of songs together over the next few weeks, then drifted apart. Haven't seen her since, but it's my best small world story.

Keys

I lived in a house in Buntingford and found that my front door key (yale type) fitted a cupboard door in a power station in Romania where I was working when I needed to get some technical supplies for which the keys weren't available

School friends sister

I arranged a business meeting when I was working in Manchester with someone who had recently moved there from London. I had never seen this person before and only knew them by reputation. As I walked into the room with my PA I commented that a woman in the restaurant looked just like a school friends sister. This turned out to be the person I was meeting. When I mentioned this to her she relayed that a few years before she was approached by a fellow student at university because she looked like his sister and subsequently went on to have a relationship with him. This man turned out to be my school friend.

eight-coincidence

My father, John Edward Blake, was born in 1913 and was the eighth child in the family born on the 8th day of the 8th Month (August).

Matching Deaths

My grandfather on my fathers side, who I never met, died on Monday 8th October 1962. My father died on Monday 8th October 2007.

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