Phone Number Coincidence - Statto Question

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Jonathan Bryant
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Phone Number Coincidence - Statto Question

Post by Jonathan Bryant » Tue Feb 21, 2017 11:18 am

I’ve just had a text from a new work contact - except in my phone it came up as a message from the guy who came to tune my piano three or years ago. New Work Guy must have taken on Piano Tuner’s old phone number.


My questions are:-

What is the probability of this happening?

I guess is must be pretty low, but given that there are billions of us and we all know lots of people, why doesn’t it happen all the time? Not to me, per se, but to somebody.
Last edited by Jonathan Bryant on Tue Feb 21, 2017 3:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Michael Farthing
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Re: Phone Number Coincidence - Statto Question

Post by Michael Farthing » Tue Feb 21, 2017 11:21 am

Well it does. Only 2 minutes ago I read of such a case on this very forum.

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: Phone Number Coincidence - Statto Question

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Tue Feb 21, 2017 11:25 am

Difficult to say. I think it's a probability that (for any given person) grows quadratically with the number of acquaintances they have.

Alex Holowczak
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Re: Phone Number Coincidence - Statto Question

Post by Alex Holowczak » Tue Feb 21, 2017 11:46 am

Jonathan Bryant wrote:New Work Guy must have taken on Piano Tuner’s old phone number.
Maybe New Work Guy is Piano Tuner in disguise? :idea:

NickFaulks
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Re: Phone Number Coincidence - Statto Question

Post by NickFaulks » Tue Feb 21, 2017 1:14 pm

When I got my current passport I noticed that the nine digit number was my work telephone extension followed by my Bermuda car number. There are of course other combinations which I would have found equally startling, but how many out of the one billion possibilities?
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a QR code stamped on a human face — forever.

James Plaskett
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Re: Phone Number Coincidence - Statto Question

Post by James Plaskett » Sun Feb 26, 2017 11:14 pm

Lose yourself browsing here, Señor Faulks - http://www.jamesplaskett.com
:D
Or buy my book on the topic - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Coincidences-J ... 0950944165

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