Coincidence
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| It is no great wonder if in long process of time, while fortune takes her course hither and thither, numerous coincidences should spontaneously occur. | —Plutarch.Plutarch's Lives: Vol. II. "Sertorius" |
A coincidence is the occurring of an event in conjunction with any some conditions, e.g. another event. As such, a coincidence occurs when something uncanny, accidental and unexpected happens under conditions named, but not under a defined relationship. When there are no conditions named, the event is just that single entity. The word is derived from the Latin cum- ("with", "together") and incidere (a composed verb from "in" and "cadere": "to fall on", "to happen"). Inscience, the term is generally used in a more literal translation, e.g., referring to when two rays of light strike a surface at the same point at the same time. In this usage of coincidence, there is no implication that the alignment of events is surprising, noteworthy or non-causal.
A coincidence does not prove a causal or any other modal relationship nor require any such. In the field of mathematics, the index of coincidencecan be used to analyze whether two events are related. Such index does not define any relationship, but just describes some possibility of such. Physically related events may be expected to have a higher probability to occur, probability is the basic metrics, or method, to rationally evaluate physical coincidences.
From a statistical perspective, coincidences are inevitable and often less remarkable than they may appear intuitively. An example is the birthday problem, where the probability of two individuals sharing a birthday already exceeds 50% with a group of only 23.[1]
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