coincidence of Cambridge coincidences

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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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On of the questions in the Cambridge entrance exam I sat in 1974 was on "coincidence" and I wrote an essay about setting up an organisation for the study of coincidence. I don't suppose Prof Spiegelhalter has been dredging through historic exam papers looking for inspiration! I went on to postulate that the institute discovered that it was all being controlled by aliens. Now it really would be a coincidence if that bit happened too. Incidentally I passed the exam.
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Date submitted:Sat, 14 Jan 2012 09:57:32 +0000Coincidence ID:3761