An amazing chance meeting

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.

My wife and I were taking a flight to Canada to attend a friend's (Mike L) 50th birthday party. We hate flying and were dreading sitting for 6 hours with people we didn't know. The couple who eventually sat next to us thankfully spoke little until we were about an hour from Toronto, when the usual banter started - "Have you been to Canada before?" - The two ladies chatted away until her eyes glazed over slightly, she conferred with her husband, and then turned to my wife and said "Are you by any chance going to "Mike L's birthday party?". How about that! Two couples, both going to the same party, one couple living in the UK, one couple travelling in the UK, but from Canada. We were both on our way to the same party - only 100 people or so. And both find ourselves on the same flight and sitting together! We have since become great friends!
Total votes: 351
Date submitted:Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:20:05 +0000Coincidence ID:3813