Libby G

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.

Listen to this - I think it is quite an amazing co-incidence! Years ago I lived and worked in Namibia - or South West Africa as it was called then. Two of us spent a wonderful weekend camping in the Namib Desert. Namib means "vast" and it is all of that. Distances between places are huge and in those days I think the population in the whole huge country was something like one million people. Traffic on the main roads was minimal and in the desert virtually non-existent. It is a photographer's paradise - miles of gently sloping and shifting sand dunes, bizarre vegetation and generally spectacular scenery. Anyway, on the way out of the desert but still miles from civilisation - we came to a grid on a blind rise and smashed into another vehicle coming the other way. It really seemed unreal that in that vast space and in that split second in time our paths should meet! Fortunately both vehicles seemed to have sustained equal but minor damage. So we took out our cool boxes and shared a beer with the folks from the other car before we went on our way.
Total votes: 416
Date submitted:Sat, 14 Jan 2012 09:55:49 +0000Coincidence ID:3755