Wrong Number or Was It?
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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.
About forty years ago, I was at home and dialled my friend's home phone number. She lived about a five minute walk from my house. The telephone was answered by a voice I didn't recognise so, puzzled, I asked "Can I speak to Heather please?" The person replied, "Who wants her?" "Janet" I replied. Heather came to the phone and in a puzzled voice asked "Is that you Jan? How did you know I was here? How did you get the number?" It turned out she was visiting a friend who lived in the nearby city, about 20 miles away and on a completely different telephone code. There was absolutely no explanation how I had got through to this other number. In those days there was no such thing as "divert call". I had dialled Heather's home telephone number and had no idea at all of her friend's name or telephone number though it took me some time to convince Heather, if I ever did!
Date submitted:Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:06:07 +0000Coincidence ID:5275
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