Cambridge Coincidences Collection

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.

Well I Never!

Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University wants to know about your coincidences!

Meet acquaintance the other side of the world

Im a postman. I have 440 houses on my round. About 5 years ago I went on holiday to India, Mount Abu and was chatting to a fellow in the hotel one evening and we realised that his house was on my round.

Parralel holiday + Pokémon murder

I don't believe in fate or destiny or anything like that, and I see all these things as just amusing happenings of probability and large numbers, but there are quite a few. No1. So my girlfriend and I booked a holiday in Malta. We get to the hotel, and while booking in someone behind says "Adrian?". I turn round and my two friends who I haven't seen in years are there. Wierd, same hotel, same country, same time for a holiday? But then it turned out we were on the same plane over, going back on the same plane and their room the one directly above ours, we could hear them stamping.... among other things.... We'd booked with different companies and paid different prices so it wasn't like we both just grabbed the same deal. (Ours was cheaper... awww yeah). The flights were to/from Leeds Bradford, Me and my girlfreind went there because it was the cheapest flight there. They flew from there because they live in bradford and it was only a few quid more than the cheapest somewhere else. ALSO!!!! My name is Adrian... The guys name is Aiden.... that sort of increases the wierdness a bit .... right?

Memory Card

I have a memory card whose serial number was my phone number (at the time)

Wikipedian's burning ears?

Emailing a colleague about Wikipedia editing training, I mentioned that a few months ago I'd met a director of Wikimedia UK, and that we should contact him to find out more about training. The very second I pressed the Send button, an email came in from this same director making the first contact since that meeting, asking if we'd thought about Wikipedia editing training...

Holiday Friend

When I was about 9, a friend of mine at the time was a girl called (for the sake of this) Mona. It was nearing the end of term, and I was heading off for a week in France with my family. We stayed in this small village, with only about 20 houses in the nearby region. You can imagine my surprise when we got there, and we found that inside the neighbouring house was my friend Mona and her family, also staying in the village! The two families hadn't collaborated or planned it, it had just occured.

lucky meeting

I am asking for coincidence stories, but they don't seem to happen to me! The only one I can remember is checking into a run-down hotel in Vienna about 25 years ago, and seeing the name of a friend from my schooldays as the previous entry in the register. I was amazed, but when he walked in the door a minute later I could be very cool and greet him with a casual 'hi Phil', while he was speechless.

Cloudy Pictures

I was once playing Pictionary as a kid and was criticized by my team members, who said 'All your pictures look like clouds!' I drew my next card, and the word I had to draw was.. 'Cloud.' Luckily, they guessed it.

Be careful what you say

When travelling in NZ in 1996 I stayed at a remote and near empty backpacking hostel. Bored one evening I begged the landlord to open up the outdoor spa for a soak, supported by another lonely traveler. We got to talking under the stars and we began to discuss whom and what really annoyed us. I began to talk about one person I found unbearable at school, who'd ended up following me to uni. I'd never much thought of him since leaving college but began to really warm to my topic, describing how he may be the only person I've ever met I'd happily push under a bus. It turned out that my bathing companion, at 2 in the morning on the other side of the world, was his girlfriend's cousin.

11.11 time display

Whenever I look at the clock in the morning, 80% of the time, is says 11.11

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