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!

Oyez Oyez!

Monday 10th July 1995 This morning, walking through Golden Square with my 8 year old daughter, we paused to look into an architect’s window where there was a splendid model of a castle by a river. It reminded us very much of Rochester. (We went there on a visit on a cold October day in 1993 – the castle was closed! – and we remembered meeting the Town Crier outside the Dickens Museum. He was waiting for a school party and had plenty of time to chat.) This afternoon, we were on our way back to Charing Cross and were just crossing King William IV Street when my daughter caught my arm. There, walking along the pavement towards us outside the Post Office, was the Town Crier of Rochester in his tricorn hat and scarlet tunic, carrying his bell. We stopped and told him in amazement that we’d been talking about him only three hours earlier. He even gave us a picture postcard of himself, so he was obviously totally corporeal! (Greg)

Parallel Lives 100 years apart

I grew up in the Midlands, and moved to the South East of England, due to work. I initially moved into a shared house in Horley, Surrey where I met a housemate who would later become my wife. We were married in Chichester, West Sussex. Prior to getting married, I didn't know I had any connection to West Sussex. A few years later we started tracing our family history and this was when we discovered these coincidences... - my family came from the same village that my wife had lived in as a child. She went to school with children of the same surname as those who were neighbours to my ancestors and there's a link to one of these families by marriage. - other family members lived in a row of cottages in Chichester which my wife had previously mentioned to me as always being somewhere that she wanted to live. - My great great great grandfather died on the same parcel of land in Chichester where my wife worked as a teenager. My wife seemed to have walked in my ancestors footsteps 100 years later.

Surprising event

I was working in London, where I lived, in South London. My Father, who I saw regularly, was also working and lived in north-east London, in Walthamstow. I had to go and pick some gig tickets up from the Star Green ticket office at Oxford Circus (way before t'internet) so got off the tube and bought said ticket, then went down in to the station again. I bashed full on in to a large human body as I was rushing along, as were they. We both looked around to say sorry and... it was my Dad. Now that freaked me out, in an amused way!

Identical number

My phone number as a young adult was the same as my grandparents, except in another area code. My seven digits were in the same order and identical to their seven digit phone number.

See you in court!

Monday 1st December 2003 A missive from The Court Service summons me to attend at the Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey for Jury Service on Monday 26th January 2004. I work for myself, and this date falls right in the middle of what I know will be an extremely busy period. If I go, I stand to lose a lot of my anticipated income. Ring my old friend James, thinking that, as he’s long been freelance and self-employed, he might know how to respond. He tells me that he, too, has been summoned for jury service – also at the Old Bailey on 26th January. How many eligible jurors are there in the Greater London area whose surnames begin with P and R? And, in any case, James lives in Enfield on the other side of London, and we’re in Greenwich. (Greg)

Extraordinary meeting

Saturday 21st July 2007. We’re on holiday in Sorrento and had planned to visit Herculaneum next Tuesday. Yesterday, however, we changed our plans and decided to go early this morning. I immediately had a strong feeling (a presentiment, I suppose) that we’d run into someone we know – probably the parents of a child at the independent girls’ school where my wife works. En route by train this morning, I repeated my conviction that we’d bump into someone we know. We arrived at the site just as they were opening, and found the place magically deserted. For some while we wandered from house to house without seeing a soul. And then we found ourselves in a courtyard with another couple and their teenage son. Like us, they were heavily disguised in hats and sunglasses. On the next occasion when we crossed paths with them, we heard the father speak. I whispered to my wife that he sounded very like a friend whom we hadn’t seen for about fourteen years – we had all worked together and often socialised with them.

Same village; different country

Some years ago myself (Manda) and my partner (Garry) lived in Holland in a caravan on a farm in a tiny village called Ledeacker, in Brabant, near the German border. (in case you want to find it). When we moved back to England one of our dutch friends (Ans, who didnt come from Ledeacker) would visit us once a year and would meet our English friends, one of whom was a girl called Kate. She came from Cornwall. One year Ans was visiting and we decided to surprise Kate with a visit (pre mobile phone days). We drove down in Ans' dutch registered car, and found the village (never having been there before). It was a tiny hamlet of a couple of farms and a few cottages. We parked up and went to find the house. Unfortunately Kate wasn't home, so we headed back to the car. As we approached a woman was walking towards us and asked (in Dutch) whose is the dutch registered car? Obviously we were amazed that there was a dutch person living in such a tiny place and started chatting. She had married one of the farmers and been living there for few years. We asked where she came from in holland.

Head turner

I was watching TV on my iPad and there was someone being interviewed. As I watched, there was a noise in the street so I picked up the tablet and went to have a look, inadvertently causing the picture to auto-rotate the interviewee upside down just as he said, “and for me, that really turned things on their head”.

Hobbit

As I was writing a book, I wrote an e-mail to my Mum regarding the number of words in an average novel. I listed some famous ones as examples. The first on my list was The Hobbit, at 95,000 words. An hour after writing I turned on Radio 4 and there was a programme with a section on how to write a good book and one of the first questions the interviewee asked the interviewer was 'how many words would you guess are in The Hobbit?’ Now if that is not a coincidence I don't know what is.

Dart score double

My son Daniel and I were playing darts. He has no technique and just chucks the darts and hopes for the best, often missing the board completely. After a while he had a go and his 3 darts happened to land in the treble 20, then 18, then also a treble 10, totalling 98, an amazingly good score for him. I had my go, then Daniel stepped up again. He threw a treble 20, 18, and treble 10, totalling 98. Exactly the same, in the same order, 2 goes running, just by complete chance - no skill involved!

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