Is this just a coincidence?

Chi Meson

Here's an old thread about coincidences
http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=142423
Post #7 was particularly creepy.

zoobyshoe

Yeah, that's a good one.

Borg

In 2005, I was driving home from a weekend trip with my wife when my sister called to tell me that our mother had passed away. A few minutes after I hung up, the radio station that we were listening to played "Don't Fear the Reaper". That was an odd feeling but again, it was just a coincidence. I'm sure that there were many people who didn't just find out about a relative passing away right before the song played.

ThomasT

It's interesting that, wrt ordinary language, the word "coincidence" connotes a lack of correlation, no particular connection, between two events. But in science the word connotes that there is a correlation.

Wrt your post, my question would be: why do you think that you "suddenly got this drive to watch The Prince of Egypt"? Personally, I've never heard of it, have never had a "drive" to watch it, and have never listened to any of the music in it.

I suspect that there's indeed some sort of significant connection between your history and the (musical or lyrical or both) content of the song.

Jimmy Snyder

Today I experienced the most amazing coincidence of my life. We are on vacation in the outer banks of North Carolina. We had lunch in a seafood restaurant of course. It's called Sugar Shack. After eating we stopped at nearby Tanger Outlets so I could take a nap and my wife could window shop. Then we headed north. I thought we could get to Norfolk by following the island, but that is not the case. The road ends and from that point you can only drive along the beach. However, my car was too shallow and we got stuck in the sand. This was roughly two hours after we had left the restaurant. Fortunately, someone in a huge pickup truck was able to pull us out. While he was pulling my car out, a small group of people came out to watch. Among these people was the Chiropractor who lives a few doors up the street from me in South Jersey. My daughter works for him. He asked me what on earth I was doing in NC and I asked him the same. It turns out that he's on vacation too. This by itself would be amazing enough. However, it gets coincidencer. He told me that he had seen us in the seafood restaurant but wasn't sure it was us. Later, he called my daughter and asked her if her parents were in NC. By the time he had done this and confirmed that it was us, we had already left the restaurant and so we didn't meet at that time.

zoobyshoe

I just don't see what's so coincidental about a seafood restaurant called "The Sugar Shack". In fact that strikes me as downright anti-coincidental. What would have been a better example would have been a seafood restaurant called "The Seafood Restaurant." Even coincidenter, as you say, would be if they served seafood there. If all those things had lined up, that's when I might start wondering if they really were coincidence, and start speculating about paranormal explanations.

Just kidding. I get the coincidence: a big truck happened to come by to help just exactly when your car was stuck.

ThomasT

Well, imho it's not all that remarkable that two people from the same area who are connected, as you are with the chiropracter, chose to vacation in the same place at the same time. That being the case, then it's also not too remarkable that you happened to eat at the same restaurant and travel on the same road at roughly the same time. It's also not too amazing, to me anyway, that a huge pickup happened by while you were stuck and helped you out. There are lots of huge pickups in North Carolina, and people there generally believe in being good neighbors, afaik.

Was there some subtle point that you were making that I missed? If so, that wouldn't be too amazing either.

The most amazing coincidence that's ever happened to me was when I was making, in Fort Lauderdale, Fl., a Cincinnati (Greek) Chili recipe and on spooning a bit of the stuff into a bowl for testing, while watching a documentary on dolphins, it inexplicably formed a remarkably accurate two-dimensional depiction of downtown Fort Lauderdale circa 1972 -- the same year that the Super Bowl champion Miami Dolphins went undefeated. After eating the first spoonful, the chili configuration changed to an unmistakable rendering of the Virgin Mary being presented with a basket of Easter eggs by the Seven Dwarfs. It took me exactly seven spoonfuls to finish my testing of the chili, and what do you think was playing on the radio at the time (I like to multimedia multitask)? I dare not say, for it is too astounding to utter.

Jimmy Snyder

You missed the fact that it was the most amazing coincidence of my life. According to your analysis it should happen to me every time I leave the state.

ThomasT

In that case, I would recommend getting into the reproduction and testing of various chili recipes. The possibilites are, as far as I can tell, unlimited.

Not necessarily.