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!

Lucky Conversation

It is early morning, one day in Spring 1969. I am ten years old and it is a big day in our family. I am going, with my parents, to the school where I recently sat the entrance exam. In a couple of hours, I will have an interview with the headmistress. I am ready nice and early and, with nothing better to do, I waltz into my parents’ bedroom, where Daddy is putting on his tie, and strike up this random conversation. Sue: “Guess what, Joanna came top in Biography!” (Joanna was my friend, who had moved to senior school a year ago, where they studied all sorts of strange subjects, which were unknown to me!) Daddy: “Biography? Are you sure? Don’t you mean Biology?” Sue: (Having thought about this for a nanosecond), “Oh yeah, it must be that. Biology.” And with that, I am off. Daddy: “Hold on a second, young lady! Come back here, I want to explain something to you.“ Reluctantly, I return to the bedroom, knowing that I am about to be subjected to one of Dad’s lectures.

Random calls from 2 people of my Past from same time period

I received a very random text from a women I did a yoga training from 12 years ago. The text was a mistake she was looking for a different Nancy in her life and then she accidental called me. The same day I received a facetime call from a teacher of yoga from that time period. This call was very random and not a number I have in my phone and it was also from Australia and not the US where I reside. I ignored it and went on about my life, later that evening I got a weird text from that teacher asking why I had called him. I re-looked at my phone and it was a definite incoming call. Both people I had a little texting on how our lives where and that was that. 5/22/2018

Random calls from 2 people of my Past from same time period

I received a very random text from a women I did a yoga training from 12 years ago. The text was a mistake she was looking for a different Nancy in her life and then she accidental called me. The same day I received a facetime call from a teacher of yoga from that time period. This call was very random and not a number I have in my phone and it was also from Australia and not the US where I reside. I ignored it and went on about my life, later that evening I got a weird text from that teacher asking why I had called him. I re-looked at my phone and it was a definite incoming call. Both people I had a little texting on how our lives where and that was that. 5/22/2018

Mexico Argentina connections

In 1999, my business partner and I opened an office in Mexico City. Almost immediately I was hired to work on a full time consulting job to overhaul a company in the northern city of Saltillo, near the Texas border. I left my partner in charge of the Mexico City office, and one of the first things he did was hire an assistant. She was very competent but (and this is germaine to the story) had no prior experience or contacts in our industry. Meanwhile in Saltillo, I was having trouble filling positions. Fortuitously and out of the blue, a very qualified candidate from Buenos Aires cold-called the company looking for work. At the time, Argentina was going through a severe economic crisis, and those lucky enough to find work were earning less than half what they could make in Mexicos. I offered him a job, and asked if he could recommend anyone else in Argentina. He gave me three or four names, including that of a young man from the city of Cordoba.

Surprising wrong phone number

I was at work trying to call another company in a different state. I was working on getting a report for them and I had some information I needed to request first and I couldn't wait for an email. Since I was in a hurry, I forgot to dial 1 so I dialed the number, but locally 804-523-4304 when i meant to dial 523-430-456. When someone answered it was a co-worker in the same 50 person building on his cell phone. I thought I dialed his extension accidentally, but it was really his cell phone. What are the chances?

God brought us together

My husband and i met in Tennessee in a store parking lot witnessing an altercation. He and I started talking and ended up dating. Found out we stayed in the same apartment complex, we share the same birthday, his father and my mother share the same birthday, and we both lived in the same town in north Carolina when i was a child. We both were at the same military base in south Carolina but at different times.

How I Met My Partner

My coincidence is a rather long story, and it has its start long before I was born. I write this, of course, understanding that it can really only be considered a coincidence given how it has resulted in finding my current partner. If it had not had this result, it simply would have resulted in nothing more than an interesting story. And so I take you to the very beginning, which is post-civil war Spain. The government is currently taken over by Dictator Francisco Franco who was the leader of the Falange movement. With the beginning of his rule also came a series of new laws the limited free speech, women´s rights, among others. Most relevant to this story, was the repeal of the right to divorce that was implemented under the previous government. Because people were now no longer allowed to get divorced, there were cases were couples simply separated by moving to different regions and continued their lives apart (I´m certain deciding to do this would have resulted in several consequences, the harshest of which likely affected the woman in the relationship).

David Foster Wallace Haunts Me

I was both listening to an interview with Zadie Smith and scrolling through Tumblr. At the exact same time, Smith referenced Foster Wallace and a picture of Foster Wallace appeared on my Tumblr. At the exact same time, down to the second. Incidentally, I was reading a piece on Foster Wallace two days ago. It's been a weird couple of days.

DX so handsome

I'm so handsome

Same ancestor

Everyone on this world has the same ancestor

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