Not just an ordinary shotting star!
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.
About 20 years ago I had a strange but wonderful sequence of events that can't be easily explained.
I was in student accomodation in Somerset. Our bungalow in a small cul-de-sac didn't have a phone (we didn't have mobiles then) so we all had to walk to the centre of the village to make calls.
One evening I was walking to the phonebox when I looked up at the street light (it was autumn I think anyway it was at dark). The street light turned off, just the one I was looking at. That wasn't strange but what follows was, I saw a shooting star in the gap created by the turned off light. Then the light came back on.
What is the probability of that? The fact that just one street light went off and on, the fact that I was walking then, the fact that there was a shooting star, that fact that I was at the right angle/place to see the shoting star, the timing of the light going off and duration.
It was amazing and very special. May be a reassuring sign for a nervous young student many miles away from home in Northamptonshire.
Date submitted:Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:31:09 +0000Coincidence ID:6148
