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!

Poetic coincidence

I have been a member of a small poetry group in London for 15 years. Membership has changed over that time but in total about 40 poets have been involved in the group at some stage. I discovered that one of the other members was born on the same day as me (same day, month and year) in South Africa. I was born in the UK. I wondered what were the chances of two people born on the same day in different countries becoming members of the same group in later life, through shared interests. Besides being poets we have also both been screenwriters.

The number 8

My husband, son, daughter and I have birthdays which are 8 days apart from the next. My son's birthday is the 5th, mine is the 13th, my daughter is the 21st and my husband is the 29th.

Go now

I happened to be watching a repeat of a prog rock programme on Yesterday channel that I'd missed when BBC broadcast it. The Moody Blues were on,singing Question. This prompted a conversation trying to recall other Moody hits. Of course Nights in White Satin was mentioned. I recalled Go Now,which was another. That evening,a friend on Facebook had decided to remark on Therese May's poll result and was harking back to the Spitting Image satire of Maggie Thatcher during her period in power. The video was the puppets singing Go Now by the Moody Blues!

Coincidence of June 13th

My father was killed in an accident on June 13th, 2012. My fathers wish was that i go to school. Being a little older and not having much cash, i honored his wishes and enrolled in a trade school. I graduated on June 13th, 2013. Years have passed. I am now married and have been trying for a baby almost 2 years. I recently took a pregnancy test and it came back positive. Tomorrow, June 13th 2017 is when I will find out how far along i am in my pregnancy.

Twice on the Same Day

I didn't realize it until yesterday that on the same day at the exact time but 9 years apart I was sworn to the bar and 9 years later baptized my first child. I must really like this particular date.

67 sergent

67 is appearing in my life. Constantly, Coincidentally. I don't know why.

Should be dead!

When I was 7 years old I was hit by a car going at a high rate of speed over 60mph. I was thrown about 60 feet into a brick wall exactly on the corner of Fillmore ave. And Gerritsen ave. Brooklyn N. Y. The people at the light who saw me laying there. They're eyes I remember was a look of horror. One of them asked where I lived. I told them, brought me home. Ambulance came went to hospital, was released, and couldn't walk for about 2 weeks, had to crawl around. Buy didn't break one bone. Then when I was about 38 year's old, I split a telephone pole in half doing about 100 plus miles per hour. In this accident I did break my sternum, right hand and few minor things. But I shouldn't have lived in either case. Then were few more accidents was in and should have been permanently injured, but wasn't. Just so weird how I survived these things.

Help Me

Ever since I came back from college a few weeks ago and re-united with my friends from home, weird things have been happening. The more I think about it- everything that happened in the first two weeks I was back was a complete blur, except for the fatal incident where my cousin Zach had gone out on a run and fell off a cliff to his death. These past couple weeks had just vanished from my mind- as if they never even happened. But then the other day a 17 year old girl got in a horrible car accident in Altamont and died- Alyssa Gelfand- who happens to be Alex Gelfand’s cousin. There were two other passengers in the car, but they both survived. After hearing about this incident a day before being in Lake George, before she was pronounced dead, my friends and I- Michelle, Steph, Langston, and Ian were on our way back from the lake and were stopped in dead traffic due to a horrific accident. This may just sound like a coincident, but there’s more. After being home from the lake, it got super weird. We would all begin to talk at the same time, say the same words, or say the same ideas all at the same time without any cues or indications.

Oliva Spain

we own a house in Oliva a small working spanish town in the provence of Valencia it is not a typical English holiday destination although because of its charm it is starting to get more popular with brits. My wife Amanda Sparkes was posting about Oliva on facebook and had a message from a guy saying ...who are you ?....and he went on to explain that his wife was also Amanda Sparkes and that they also owned a house in Oliva. The two Amanda's got talking and found out that there middle names are also the same.... Jane !! So two unrelated totally unknown Amanda Jane Sparkes both have a house in a small town in Spain.....Amazing.

Old Crush

Seven years ago I went to a summer music camp. While there, I developed a crush on a guy. We became friends on Facebook and had a few conversations post-camp. However, those conversations fizzled out by two months later, and at some point during the last seven years we became not friends on Facebook. Up until recently I had completely forgotten he existed. Then a few months ago I started working with some high schoolers at my alma mater on chorus music for a festival they were going to be a part of. When I saw the list of pieces they were working on, I was startled to see that one of the composers was the guy from camp! I was in shock. Then I was asked to chaperone at the festival, which was a little unexpected since I teach elementary school, not high school. I was hoping that the guy would show up at the concert to hear his piece, and he did! I got to see him afterward and he actually remembered me, which was a huge shock as it has been seven years. Of course seeing him made all of the feelings that I had for him come back. I friend requested him on FB and he accepted. Now it gets even more interesting.

Pages