Chance meeting

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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.

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Some years ago my husband and I were driving along one evening in a quiet Hampshire coastal retirement area near our home when we spotted an elderly woman in slippers looking lost and confused in the road. We pulled abruptly to a halt to see if we could help - at the same time as a man driving in the opposite direction did the same. Having established that the old lady was indeed very confused we phoned the police for help. Whilst waiting for them to arrive my husband (originally from Plymouth in Devon) commented on the other man's Devonshire accent . The man explained that he was on holiday in the area but that he lived in Kingsbridge in Devon. My husband remarked that he had spent a good part of his childhood in Kingsbridge living in a flat above an undertakers. It turned out that the man was living in the very same building that my husband had lived in!
Total votes: 269
Date submitted:Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:50:54 +0000Coincidence ID:4820