continents apart

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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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The coincident I wish to tell you about involves our son Matthew. Several years ago he went on an 18 month trip round the world, through Europe, Asia, round Australia (twice) and finally America. In Australia he had a campervan and drove from town to town, youth hostel to youth hostel, taking others and sharing petrol etc. On one occasion he was walking down the main street in Alice Springs, in the middle of the outback and almost the dead centre of the continent, when he recognised the young man walking towards him. It was one of his friends who lived not 500 yards from our family home back in the UK. Within a few minutes another familiar face came into view – someone Matthew had worked with a few years previously back home in Essex. The travel companions our son had with him were two girls from a town no more than 6 miles from our home. So within 5 minutes there were 5 people in the middle of Alice Springs who all lived within 6 miles of each other on the other side of the world, all known to Matthew, but not known to each other until that time.
Total votes: 167
Date submitted:Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:28:28 +0000Coincidence ID:5960