What are the odds?

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.

When living in New Zealand, at a small party in a rural, sparsely populated area, I met an Australian woman, born and raised in Australia but now working in NZ. During a conversation which amazed both of us, we discovered that her elderly aunt with whom she'd stayed as a child, and my sister, lived in the same very small Norfolk village (population c.600). Exploring this further, we found that in fact they lived in the same cottage- an old cottage divided into two houses down a remote unsurfaced lane. We were both a bit spooked by this - my reaction was to wonder what the odds were of such a coincidence, hers was to think it was a really significant 'message from the universe'.
Total votes: 305
Date submitted:Thu, 07 May 2020 08:04:15 +0000Coincidence ID:10449