Unlikely rescue

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.

Catherine Proctor of Wells Sailing Club (Norfolk) was wearing contact lenses (in the 1970s, early days of contact lenses – they were expensive!). The wind was quite light and the sea was quite calm. She rubbed her eye and a contact lens popped out and flipped onto the surface of the sea. She yelped and exclaimed her distress to her fellow sailors. A sailor in a following boat spotted the lens floating on the surface of the water (!) and as his boat sailed past, managed to scoop it out of the water (!!). Not exactly a coincidence but surely an extremely 'unlikely' event.
Total votes: 336
Date submitted:Wed, 26 Feb 2014 15:46:01 +0000Coincidence ID:7471