calling my best friend

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.

As a teenager, I wanted to chat with my best friend during a school break. It was the days before mobiles, and we might chat once a week on our parent's phone in the hall, rather than every day! It had been a while since we'd talked and so I called up her one evening. Her phone was engaged. Five minutes later, she called and said she'd tried to call a few minutes before, but my line was engaged. We'd called at exactly the same time and engaged both our telephone numbers! We are still best friends thirty years on.
Total votes: 217
Date submitted:Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:41:05 +0000Coincidence ID:4646