Location coincidence

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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.

Many of the animations were produced using Flash and will no longer work.

When I was 21 I was working on a farm on Samsø a small island off the coast of Denmark, all the workers were young and were from all over Europe. We lived in tents but had access to a barn with electricity and cooking facilities, however it got dark at about 9pm and work started at 4am so we'd sit around with tea and chat or play cards. I was there for over 3 months and one conversation would come up every now and then, I guess to stave off homesickness. We used to describe something about home, on this one night we were telling each other what we could see out of our bedroom windows. The first few people had their turn and then I had my go, following me was a guy called Fred and he lived in Todmorden in England, he told us about the view from his window across the valley, and the fields with animals in, the hills and the little farm right opposite his house with the stone outhouses. All the while he had been talking another guy seemed to be listening more intently, once Fred had finished his description the other guy, Ben, asked what colour the front door on the farm was. Then he described what he saw when he lived with his grandparents on their farm, also near Todmorden. What he saw across the valley was a terrace of 4 stone houses above a road, with a pub at the end and a postbox. Every morning that Fred woke up and drew his curtains he looked out on Ben's grandparents farm and Ben looked out on Freds house. They had travelled 600 miles to discover they had started off in the same place. Jen
Total votes: 756
Date submitted:Sat, 14 Jan 2012 08:43:57 +0000Coincidence ID:3521