The piece of puzzle

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.

Every year when our family meets for Christmas we get out a large wooden hand-cut puzzle of the British Isles. This puzzle is probably 60 years old, about 3' x 5' and contains many hundreds of pieces. It is completed by anyone with a spare hour or so over the days that we are together. This last Christmas we discovered a few shreds of wood on the floor of the kitchen - a sign that my sister's dog had found a dropped piece on the floor and eaten it. This was sad as up until then, the puzzle had been complete. We had to wait until we had finished the puzzle before we found out which piece was now missing. It turned out to be a small piece from the middle of Wiltshire - and exactly where we were spending Christmas.
Total votes: 240
Date submitted:Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:57:54 +0000Coincidence ID:4719