# "9/11" and coincidences. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 10, 2004, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-and-coincidences/274076 "2004-11-10T20:41:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-and-coincidences/274076/1 "2004-11-10T20:41:33Z")
I first watched “Fahrenheit 9/11” on 9/11 (that’s the 9th of November. It’s Date/month in the UK. The odds of that are 365 to one right???) I just posted a thread “Ask the Atheist”, came out, looked to the right “9 11” (that’s 9 replies, 11 views) These are just two examples of the term “9/11” turning up in far too many incidences in every day life. :dubious: :dubious: :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-and-coincidences/274076/2 "2004-11-10T20:54:12Z")
> [@](#): > > turning up in far too many incidences in every day life No, I’d say they probably occur at exactly the same rate as any other number combination in your life, you just don’t have anything to associate with them. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-and-coincidences/274076/3 "2004-11-10T21:00:24Z")
It’s not just that they are turning up. It’s that they are turning up in relation to the event. the first example, the film I watched was named, and about (indirectly) 9/11. The second example, a thread about Atheism, and 9/11 being religiously motivated (fanatic religion) I understand the idea that we tend to pick things out of otherwise random occurences if they hold special meaning, and it only seems like a coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-and-coincidences/274076/4 "2004-11-11T03:02:59Z")
Isn’t the number 23 supposed to pop up at odd times? ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Silver\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Fire)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-and-coincidences/274076/5 "2004-11-11T04:12:54Z")
Growing up, our mail was sent to PO Box 169. In school, I had locker number 169. Before moving a few miles north, I lived off exit number 169. My phone number used to be area code, prefix, 1691. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-and-coincidences/274076/6 "2004-11-11T04:18:07Z")
Everything in my date-of-birth seems to be divisible by something else. When it doesn’t, I jsut introduce my time of birth, in either 12 or 24 hour clock. Clearly, I’m the devil. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-and-coincidences/274076/7 "2004-11-11T04:59:45Z")
Our lives are full of numbers - THOUSANDS of numbers. I have 5 numbers in my address, 10 in my phone number at home plus two business numbers. I have numbers on my license plate, in my birthday and the time of my birth, in all the houses I’ve lived in, in my social insurance number, my driver’s license. I still remember the number of my military ID. Roads, times, pages, books, baseball statistics. Numbers everywhere. It seems to be that with our lives plagued with numbers, it’s almost inevitable that a few specific numbers will by random chance crop up a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-and-coincidences/274076/8 "2004-11-11T05:51:26Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Our lives are **f** ull of **n** umbers - TH **O** USANDS of numbe **r** s. I have 5 numbers in my a **d** dress, 10 in my phone number at home plus two business numbers. I have numbers on my license plate, in my birthday and the time of my birth, in all the houses I’ve lived in, in my social insurance number, my driver’s license. I still remember the number of my military ID. Roads, times, pages, books, baseball statistics. Numbers everywhere. > > It seems to be that with our lives plagued with numbers, it’s almost inevitable that a few specific numbers will by random chance crop up a lot. Come again? ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-and-coincidences/274076/9 "2004-11-11T08:16:06Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Our lives are full of numbers - THOUSANDS of numbers. I have 5 numbers in my address, 10 in my phone number at home plus two business numbers. I have numbers on my license plate, in my birthday and the time of my birth, in all the houses I’ve lived in, in my social insurance number, my driver’s license. I still remember the number of my military ID. Roads, times, pages, books, baseball statistics. Numbers everywhere. > > It seems to be that with our lives plagued with numbers, it’s almost inevitable that a few specific numbers will by random chance crop up a lot. Right, and as soon as you see “9 11” come up once or twice, you’ll start looking for it subconciously, and find it more, even if it doesn’t actually come up any more than any other combination. We had a thread on this a couple months ago. Someone claimed that almost every time he looked at the clock, it was [something]:23. The concensus was that he just started expecting it to be 23 all the time, so he noticed it when it was, and completely dismissed most other times. If you have a digital clock, you might notice the time “11:34” a lot because if you turn the clock upside down, it looks like “hELL.” If you get 5 green lights in a row, on a street where that rarely happens, you’ll think it’s some kind of miracle, when in fact coincidences like that should happen every once in a while. Or if you flip a coin 10 times and it comes up heads, you’ll think the 11th one is almost certain to be tails, even though the chance is still 50/50. I think I rambled a bit, but the point is that probability and intuition rarely match up. Especially when the probability is based on the huge quantity of numbers that you see in your life, such as the list **RickJay** gave. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-and-coincidences/274076/10 "2004-11-11T08:30:22Z")
> [@vanilla](#): > > Isn’t the number 23 supposed to pop up at odd times? fnord ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-and-coincidences/274076/11 "2004-11-11T09:05:09Z")
> [@TJdude825](#): > > Or if you flip a coin 10 times and it comes up heads, you’ll think the 11th one is almost certain to be tails, even though the chance is still 50/50. > [@](#): > > It must be indicative of something, besides the redistribution of wealth. List of possible explanations. One: I’m willing it. Inside where nothing shows, I am the essence of a man spinning double-headed coins, and betting against himself in private atonement for an unremembered past. Two: Time has stopped dead, and the single experience of one coin being spun once has been repeated ninety times. . . doubtful. Three: divine intervention, that is to say, a good turn from above concerning him, cf. children of Israel, or retribution from above concerning me, cf. Lot’s wife. Four: a spectacular vindication of the principle that each individual coin spun individually is as likely to come down heads as tails and therefore should cause no surprise each individual time it does. Indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Iceland\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4bbf92/32.png) [@Iceland\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iceland_Blue)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-and-coincidences/274076/12 "2004-11-11T10:18:07Z")
23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-and-coincidences/274076/13 "2004-11-11T12:00:20Z")
I booked a round the world trip a couple of years ago… I left on November 9 (9/11) and my flight number was TG911. Coincidentally, we weren’t hijacked. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-and-coincidences/274076/14 "2004-11-11T21:44:29Z")
Usually around twice a day my clock says “9:11”. Freaky. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![professor\_folk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/df788c/32.png) [@professor\_folk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/professor_folk)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-and-coincidences/274076/15 "2004-11-12T06:05:49Z")
the train bombings in Spain were 911 days after sept.11/01 ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-and-coincidences/274076/16 "2004-11-12T06:14:28Z")
It’s confirmation bias. Although speaking of weird dates, my birthdate (9-18-81) is pretty weird. Nine is half of eighteen and the square root of 81, eighteen is 81 reversed, and the date is a palindrome if written in the European fashion (18-9-81). I don’t pretend it means anything, but I do think it’s cool. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-and-coincidences/274076/17 "2004-11-12T12:03:28Z")
> [@professor folk](#): > > the train bombings in Spain were 911 days after sept.11/01 [Not really](http://www.snopes.com/rumors/madrid.asp). Although Snopes calls this “True”, it’s only true if you use a fairly wacky way of counting. The Madrid bombings happened 912 days after 9/11. So while you can argue that there were 911 days _between_ the two attacks, it’s a bit of a stretch. I mean, if event A happens today Friday) and event B happens on Monday, you wouldn’t say that B happened “two days” after A.