Spare wheel down a roadside bank
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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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In 1985 I was taking my parents from Bishop's Waltham in Hampshire to Stalbridge in Dorset in my Renault 4. Before we set off I removed the punctured spare wheel from the back of my car. My father's rule was "Never go anywhere without a spare". If he had known he wouldn't have come. On a stretch of country road at Corfe Mullen the inevitable happened and I got a puncture. On the opposite side of the road to where we had stopped was a tea caravan. My father and I stood in the queue so as to ask where the nearest 'phone box was situated so that I could contact the AA. My father was fuming with me. Whilst standing there I glanced down the bank to the field below. I noticed some old car wheels. I looked closer and I discerned a tyre and wheel with only 3 stud holes for affixing. It was a Renault wheel. I felt the worn tyre. It was inflated! I dragged the wheel up to the car and it was precisely the right wheel!!
Date submitted:Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:53:44 +0000Coincidence ID:5734
