From a scientific perspective, coincidences are inevitable, mundane, or even meaningless. But for a lot of people, there’s something bizarre and magical about being at the right place at the right time to witness an event that happens on a rare occasion. Even we’ve got to admit, there’s something truly special about capturing an exploding meteor or buying a pitless avocado. Call them a scientific probability, fate, or a glitch in a matrix, but we’ve got a whole list of one-in-a-million photos that are guaranteed to squeeze a ‘woah’ out of you. Scroll down to find them below, and, as always, don’t forget to upvote your favorites!
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I Tried To Take A Picture Of My GF At Lake Moraine, Canada, When Suddenly This Little Guy Joined In
Rainbow Insanity. I’ve Been Told This Is A Supernumerary Rainbow Which Are Apparently Very Rare
I Saw This In A Facebook Group. Different Families Same Outfits
Let’s say that these amazing photos people were able to capture are a mere coincidence. Still, do we know what that really means? Well, according to its definition, that unlikely meeting of your long-lost classmate on the same vacation island abroad is a “surprising concurrence of events, perceived as meaningfully related, with no apparent causal connection.”
While some tried attributing the reasons for coincidences to physical forces, the collective unconscious, and even extrasensory perceptions, statistics and the law of large numbers tell us that with so much happening everywhere and the vast number of people, it’s not out of the ordinary to encounter rare coincidences.
Rainbow Clouds In Sweden This Morning
Male Red-Winged Blackbird With "Smoke Rings", His Breath Condensed On The Chilly Morning
My All Black Cat Had Five All White Kittens
For example, the birthday paradox suggests that theoretically it would only take 23 people in the same room for it to be likely that two or more people will share the same birthday.
This means that even when you’re in a bus or a classroom, it’s probable that you share your birthday with at least two people around you. It seems like an unlikely thing to happen, but it's quite likely to occur, we just aren’t aware of it, so when it happens, we are quick to attribute a special meaning to it.
Found This Little Guy Today
In This Remarkable Capture By Don Mcleish, A Seahorse Observes A Driver's Watch (And Its Own Reflection) Underwater
Mountain Casting A Shadow
“Pretty much any event or object in our lives has the power to generate coincidences. It’s just that we don’t notice the vast majority because they’re boring – like seeing two blue cars parked next to each other,” said physicist and science writer Robert Matthews.
“But every so often, we think we’ve encountered an incredibly rare coincidence. What we’re forgetting is a basic rule of probability: that even rare events are sure to happen if given enough opportunities. It’s often hard even to estimate the number of these, and thus it’s impossible to gauge their true probability, leaving us feeling baffled and spooked."
My Aunts Cat Has The Word No Circled In His Fur Pattern
Found A Stone With Dried Seaweed Attached To It
That is neat. Looks like a painting. If I found that, I would keep it.
My View Of The New Volcano Eruption In Iceland
The author of The Improbability Principle and statistician David J. Hand said that “We should expect the unexpected,” while statistician David Spiegelhalter has even summarized a list of the most common coincidences that people have experienced and shared with him.
He has a website where people can submit their stories, and since 2011, more than 4,000 have done so. From this data, Spiegelhalter was able to find that the most common type of coincidence people face is finding a link with someone they meet.
Lightning Highlighting A Tornado - Fort Worth, Tx
This Red Only Rainbow I Saw At Midnight In Finland
A red rainbow, also known as a monochrome rainbow, is a variation of a regular rainbow where the colours are limited to shades of red and orange, primarily due to the low angle of the sun near sunrise or sunset. This occurs because shorter wavelengths of light (like blue and green) are scattered more by the atmosphere, leaving the longer wavelengths (red and orange) to be more visible.
A Massive Bat Colony In Flight At Sunset
The list of other common coincidences (in order) includes:
- Simultaneous occurrence of events
- Repetition of very similar events
- Meeting someone you know in an unlikely place
- A matching date
- A matching name
- Finding a link with an object
- A matching number
- Parallel stories with multiple matches
- An object reappearing
- Matching music
Possum Vanload
This Bird Landed On My Shirt Today And Fell Asleep
These Three Random Men In My Photo Look Like The Same Person
Spiegelhalter says that the most interesting thing about coincidences isn’t really their occurrence but the fact that we notice them. That’s why research has found that coincidences happen to certain kinds of people more often than others. Or are simply noticed by some more than others.
Psychiatrist Bernard Beitman, in his research, found that people who describe themselves as religious, spiritual, self-referential, and meaning-seeking are more likely to be coincidence-prone. He also revealed that people are more likely to see coincidences when they experience extreme emotions of sadness, anger, and anxiety.
These Strange Lights Showed Up In The Sky Over Jeju, South Korea. They Have Been Here For An Hour!
The Sun Shining Through My Fish Tank Aligned Perfectly On Each Knob
A Fish Jumps Out In A Perfect Shot Timing
Spiegelhalter perfectly illustrates the previous point by saying, “Coincidences never happen to me at all, because I never notice anything. I never talk to anybody on trains. If I’m with a stranger, I don’t try to find a connection with them, because I’m English.” Meanwhile, Beitman is the opposite. “My life is littered with coincidences. [...] I got into [studying coincidences] just because, hey, look Bernie, what’s going on here?”
This Tree Grew Over The Sign, But Under The Paint
Caught This Incredible Exploding Meteor When I Went To Rattlesnake Lake In Washington, USA Last Weekend. Zoom In To See The Exact Moment It Explodes In Two
This Tree In My Neighbourhood That Has 1 Branch Of An Apple Tree And The Rest Is A Normal Tree
For Beitman, statistics and probability aren’t enough when it comes to studying coincidences. Because they can’t explain it any further than chance. “I know there’s something more going on than we pay attention to,” he says. “Random is not enough of an explanation for me.” So no matter what side you belong to, whether to the probability and chance or meaningful, fate-like coincidence, you are free to choose which one to believe.
This Butterfly My Uncle Found Has The Number 88 In Its Wings
The Way The Light Hits This Spiderweb Makes It Look Like A Cd-Rom
This Transparent Butterfly
That's probably Greta oto, the glasswing butterfly. Though most of the members of the genus Greta have very transparent wings.
This Blue Lizard I Saw On The Island Of San Andres, Colombia
All 3 People Got Dealt The Same Poker Hand
People In Bursa, Saw A Bizarre Pink Cloud In The Skies At Sunrise Today
Found This Amazing Multicolored Autumn Tree While Walking Today
Photographer Captures One In A Million Photo, But Doesn’t Realize It Untill He Gets Home.. If You Look Closely At This Photo.. Underneath The Bird’s Head There Is A Woman’s Head
Jackpot
My Child That Was Born Last Week Has Natural Blonde Highlights
Vending Machine At Work Made An Error And Distributed Everything All At Once
Saw My First Armadillo And It Stood Up To Say Hi
Amazing
Ants Build A Bridge To Cross A Gap
Tree Hit By Lightning
Was Cutting Down A Tree At A Golf Course And Found A Golf Ball Wedged In It
The Fuzz On My Sock Looks Like A Flamingo
The Silhouette In The Ice Cube Looks Like A Disney Princess
This Giant Dandelion I Found On My Walk
Found A Little Softshell Turtle At The Lake Today
Cow In A Car
The French Gentleman Spawn Is Broken
A Camera-Less iPhone Issued To My Buddy That Works At A Nuclear Plant. No Cameras Allowed
I Saw 4 Generations Of Honda Civics, In Order Of Age, All In White
I've got a white one that's....most likely between the last two...a gen8.
Gorilla Glue Completely Dried Before We Used Any Of It. Cut It Out Of The Bottle
Hate those super glues. They do the job, give it that, but the bottle always dries up regardless the size, storage, etc. So now I'm only buying the smallest one and use it as once off.
This Egg Has No Yolk
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