Newton abbot

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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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We were on holiday in Antigua and had gone to "the" place to watch the sunset along with a few thousand others. Having failed to find a couple from our hotel we had arranged to meet (it was dusk), I put my arm around the man I then noticed standing right next to me and said "Hi Keith, what brings you here?". Keith was our best man over 30 years earlier and we hadn't seen him in ten years or more (we live in Devon, he, near London). After chatting he mentioned an incident on his flight over where the couple sitting next to him had got into animated conversation as they passed over Devon, trying to spot their house. When he discovered just where they lived, he asked them if they knew us as we lived in Newton Abbot. He said he hadn't previously talked about us for years. We returned to our hotel and a couple was sitting at the bar, the lady of which my wife was sure she recognised but could not think from where. I approached and simply asked if they lived in Newton Abbot and we discovered that the wives had stood outside the same school collecting children, again many years earlier. I then told them that I knew they had flown with Virgin airlines and in which seats. I was right but they were completely flabbergasted. I guessed the chances of there being two couples from Newton Abbot on holiday in Antigua had to match our best man's story.
Total votes: 372
Date submitted:Sat, 14 Jan 2012 09:43:02 +0000Coincidence ID:3720