Busaras
5th April 2004, 03:04 PM
Spooky or fluky? The weird world of strange coincidence
ADVERTISEMENT
Laura Buxton, aged 10, released a balloon from her garden in England. It blew through the sky before landing 140 miles away in the garden of another 10-year-old girl called Laura Buxton.
In another incident two years ago, two twin brothers from Finland, aged 71, were killed in almost identical bicycle accidents along the same stretch of road within the space of two hours. Police described the tragedies as an "historic coincidence".
Police officer Marja-Leena Huhtala remarked afterwards: "It made my hair stand on end when I heard the two were brothers, and identical twins at that. It came to mind that perhaps someone from upstairs had a say in this."
When we hear true stories about coincidences such as these, many of us are inclined to look to a higher power. When a man is struck by lightning once - yet alone seven times, as happened to a park ranger called Roy Sullivan - the hand of God is frequently implicated. Even holidaymakers from the same village, who meet up by chance on a beach on the Costa Del Sol, can interpret the meeting as the result of some kind of divine intervention.
John Woods, a wealthy New York lawyer, could not be blamed for looking to the heavens after three near misses in his life. Woods left his office in one of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre seconds before the building was struck by a hijacked plane in 2001. He had been on the 39th floor of the same block when it was bombed in 1993, but escaped injury; and in 1988, he was scheduled to be on the Pan Am flight that exploded at Lockerbie, but cancelled at the last minute in order to go to an office party.
Amazing coincidences are seen by some of their chroniclers as paranormal events to be filed alongside alien abductions, dowsing and crop circles. Sceptics, on the other hand, see only the laws of probability at work. Coincidences, even outrageous ones, happen because they can happen, according to this view, and they are much more probable than we think.
A new book, Beyond Coincidence, explores some of the more extraordinary examples of this phenomenon and looks at some of the mathematical probabilities. The book's authors, Martin Plimmer and Brian King, suggest that coincidences now occur more frequently, because we travel further and more regularly, and are hooked up to the Internet. Today we are wired for coincidence.
We are more likely to stumble upon Mary of fourth class in an Internet café in Thailand simply because we get out more often nowadays.
The book confirms the view that there only six degrees of separation between any two people on the planet. In a recent experiment, a sociologist Duncan Watts assigned 60,000 people a target person, possibly living in a different country, and told them to pass an e-mail message by forwarding it only to someone they knew, with a request to forward it on in the same way. On average it took between five and seven e-mails to reach the target person.
The authors enlist mathematician Prof Ian Stewart to show how commonplace coincidences are. By way of illustration, Plimmer gives an account of a coincidence that happened to him.
Plimmer had taken his six-year-old son to hospital for a small operation. When the nurse gave the boy an injection, Plimmer fainted - hitting his head as he fell. When he came to, he was sent to another department for an X-ray and told to wait. On the table in front of him was a four-year-old magazine, which just happened to open at an article he had written about headaches.
Prof Stewart says: "Given all the factors involved, the odds against it happening must be in the region of a million to one. But how many things happen to you in a day? A thousand things? At least. Over three years, a thousand days of a thousand things a day, a million things happen to you. "In among those there will be one whose chances are one in a million. So about once every three years something like that ought to happen to you." Coincidences may have a logical explanation, but most of the events chronicled in the book still seem a bit spooky.
LINCOLN AND KENNEDY
Studies of the lives and violent deaths of US presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy have thrown up a few striking coincidences. Here is just a sample of the frequently-quoted likenesses.
* Lincoln was elected president in 1860. Exactly 100 years later, in 1960, Kennedy was elected.
* Both were assassinated by Southerners on a Friday, in the presence of their wives, with a bullet that entered the head from behind.
* Both assassins were murdered with a Colt revolver before they could be brought to trial.
* Both presidents were succeeded by vice-presidents called Johnson.
STRANGE HOTEL FINDS
In 1953, journalist Irv Kupcinet checked into a London hotel to cover the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. He opened a drawer in his room and found personal belongings of an old friend, the basketball star Harry Hannin. Two days later Hannin sent a letter to Kukpkinet from a hotel in Paris. Hannin wrote: "You'll never believe this but I've just opened a drawer here and found a tie with your name on it." Kupcinet had stayed in the same Paris hotel room a few weeks earlier.
DENNIS THE MENACE
In 1951, two cartoon-strip artists, one in Dundee and the other in California, created their own original characters called Dennis the Menace. Both were naughty boys who favoured striped jerseys, and both became hugely popular. Both creators agree that the similarities are pure coincidence.
SISTER ACT
Two American sisters decided separately to drive across America in their jeeps to see each other. Sheila Wentworth and Doris Hall were driving in opposite directions when they crashed into each other on a highway in Alabama, and both died.
SOMETHING TO CHEW ON
Businessman Danie de Toit made a speech to an audience in South Africa warning that death could strike them at any time. At the end of the speech, he put a peppermint in his mouth - and choked to death.
'Beyond Coincidence' by Martin Plimmer and Brian King is published by Icon Books, £19.47
ADVERTISEMENT
Laura Buxton, aged 10, released a balloon from her garden in England. It blew through the sky before landing 140 miles away in the garden of another 10-year-old girl called Laura Buxton.
In another incident two years ago, two twin brothers from Finland, aged 71, were killed in almost identical bicycle accidents along the same stretch of road within the space of two hours. Police described the tragedies as an "historic coincidence".
Police officer Marja-Leena Huhtala remarked afterwards: "It made my hair stand on end when I heard the two were brothers, and identical twins at that. It came to mind that perhaps someone from upstairs had a say in this."
When we hear true stories about coincidences such as these, many of us are inclined to look to a higher power. When a man is struck by lightning once - yet alone seven times, as happened to a park ranger called Roy Sullivan - the hand of God is frequently implicated. Even holidaymakers from the same village, who meet up by chance on a beach on the Costa Del Sol, can interpret the meeting as the result of some kind of divine intervention.
John Woods, a wealthy New York lawyer, could not be blamed for looking to the heavens after three near misses in his life. Woods left his office in one of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre seconds before the building was struck by a hijacked plane in 2001. He had been on the 39th floor of the same block when it was bombed in 1993, but escaped injury; and in 1988, he was scheduled to be on the Pan Am flight that exploded at Lockerbie, but cancelled at the last minute in order to go to an office party.
Amazing coincidences are seen by some of their chroniclers as paranormal events to be filed alongside alien abductions, dowsing and crop circles. Sceptics, on the other hand, see only the laws of probability at work. Coincidences, even outrageous ones, happen because they can happen, according to this view, and they are much more probable than we think.
A new book, Beyond Coincidence, explores some of the more extraordinary examples of this phenomenon and looks at some of the mathematical probabilities. The book's authors, Martin Plimmer and Brian King, suggest that coincidences now occur more frequently, because we travel further and more regularly, and are hooked up to the Internet. Today we are wired for coincidence.
We are more likely to stumble upon Mary of fourth class in an Internet café in Thailand simply because we get out more often nowadays.
The book confirms the view that there only six degrees of separation between any two people on the planet. In a recent experiment, a sociologist Duncan Watts assigned 60,000 people a target person, possibly living in a different country, and told them to pass an e-mail message by forwarding it only to someone they knew, with a request to forward it on in the same way. On average it took between five and seven e-mails to reach the target person.
The authors enlist mathematician Prof Ian Stewart to show how commonplace coincidences are. By way of illustration, Plimmer gives an account of a coincidence that happened to him.
Plimmer had taken his six-year-old son to hospital for a small operation. When the nurse gave the boy an injection, Plimmer fainted - hitting his head as he fell. When he came to, he was sent to another department for an X-ray and told to wait. On the table in front of him was a four-year-old magazine, which just happened to open at an article he had written about headaches.
Prof Stewart says: "Given all the factors involved, the odds against it happening must be in the region of a million to one. But how many things happen to you in a day? A thousand things? At least. Over three years, a thousand days of a thousand things a day, a million things happen to you. "In among those there will be one whose chances are one in a million. So about once every three years something like that ought to happen to you." Coincidences may have a logical explanation, but most of the events chronicled in the book still seem a bit spooky.
LINCOLN AND KENNEDY
Studies of the lives and violent deaths of US presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy have thrown up a few striking coincidences. Here is just a sample of the frequently-quoted likenesses.
* Lincoln was elected president in 1860. Exactly 100 years later, in 1960, Kennedy was elected.
* Both were assassinated by Southerners on a Friday, in the presence of their wives, with a bullet that entered the head from behind.
* Both assassins were murdered with a Colt revolver before they could be brought to trial.
* Both presidents were succeeded by vice-presidents called Johnson.
STRANGE HOTEL FINDS
In 1953, journalist Irv Kupcinet checked into a London hotel to cover the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. He opened a drawer in his room and found personal belongings of an old friend, the basketball star Harry Hannin. Two days later Hannin sent a letter to Kukpkinet from a hotel in Paris. Hannin wrote: "You'll never believe this but I've just opened a drawer here and found a tie with your name on it." Kupcinet had stayed in the same Paris hotel room a few weeks earlier.
DENNIS THE MENACE
In 1951, two cartoon-strip artists, one in Dundee and the other in California, created their own original characters called Dennis the Menace. Both were naughty boys who favoured striped jerseys, and both became hugely popular. Both creators agree that the similarities are pure coincidence.
SISTER ACT
Two American sisters decided separately to drive across America in their jeeps to see each other. Sheila Wentworth and Doris Hall were driving in opposite directions when they crashed into each other on a highway in Alabama, and both died.
SOMETHING TO CHEW ON
Businessman Danie de Toit made a speech to an audience in South Africa warning that death could strike them at any time. At the end of the speech, he put a peppermint in his mouth - and choked to death.
'Beyond Coincidence' by Martin Plimmer and Brian King is published by Icon Books, £19.47