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!

Golf cart crash

Me and one of my friend when we were grade 5 drove a golf cart straight into a wall.

Same Neighborhood

My friend Yuki and I met in Beijing in middle school. We found out we were both Taiwanese and came from the same part of Taipei. We then found out that our grandparents lived only three minutes away from each other, in the same neighborhood.

Sharing Birthdays

In my previous school my best friend's sister shared the same birthday with me, this allowed the both of us to compete who can send happy birthday first between the both of us. After having the same birthday I moved to Taiwan where I attended Kuei Shan, in Kuei Shan I met 2 students, Lucas and Johnny who share the same birthday as me. One which was Lucas my classmate shares the same birthday in the same year.

Friend Coincidence

When I was about five years old, I lived in a apartment, me and my sister play in the downstair lobby everyday. There was another girl that is the same age of me also like to play in the lobby, and soon we become friends. One day when I went to the new school classroom in grade one, I saw her in the same classroom and we both didn't know which school we going to study in. In the moment we are really surprise and now we are still really good friends.

School coincidence

My friend, Tim, has gone to the same school with me in grade four. We all went to Kang Chiao and we have a level of your swimming skill, which is white, blue, yellow, red and black. The thing is we never met before when we're in Kang Chiao, and we all leave the school after we get to the level of black in swimming. Know Tim and I came to the same school, Kuei Shan, in ninth grade.

video game coincidence

When I was little, I am playing a game called seer51. I love playing that game the main thing to do in the game is to get as many monster you can, just like pokemon. When I was playing I have a very good online friend called 關羽, he is very good at this game and teaches me a lot about seer51, but after a few months, I and 關羽 don't play seer51 anymore, until I came to kueishan and met a student named Steven. We started chatting and talked about games. He said when he was small he likes to play seer51 and I said me too, then I asked his ID and he said it was 關羽. I was so surprised that he is the friend in seer51. This also made me want to play that game again.

Swimming event

Jessica (my current classmate) and I went to a non-school swimming event at the Sun Moon Lake two years ago. That happens right after I met her when school started that year. The swimming event happened in September, and the school started in August. We were 9th grade, and we knew we both went to the same place after the event (I saw her post on Facebook).

Ancestor Stories

While chatting with a new acquaintance at a new school, we realized that the ancestors on both of our dads' sides had retreated to Taiwan during the Chinese civil war, and that we both have relatives on our moms sides who was doing business in Indonesia at the moment.

birthday coincidence

My solar calendar birthday is the same day as lunar calendar matsu's birthday.

Same city

I born and lived in Taoyuan for 6 years, then I moved to Taipei when I was 7. Steven is same as me and now we study in the same school and all live in Taipei, Xin Beitou.

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