Unexpected Enclosure

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.

When I was buying my first flat in 1972, I received an envelope containing not only the surveyor's report but also a job application from someone in South Africa with the same surname as mine. My surname is pretty uncommon. I am in my eighth decade and have only met people with that name outside my immediate family about twice in my life. My surveyor worked in a government department but also had a small part-time private practice for which he used some of the office facilities of a firm of architects. Someone in that firm had inadvertently left the job application in the firm's photocopying room and my surveyor had accidentally picked it up when copying my report.
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Date submitted:Sat, 14 Jan 2012 13:27:00 +0000Coincidence ID:4036