Wheel Spinner
Type your options, one per line, and spin the wheel. It turns for four seconds and lands on one segment, announced in full underneath. Tick a box to take each winner off the wheel for the next spin. Free, no sign-up, and your options stay in your browser.
6 options on the wheel
Every spin lands on a uniformly random angle, so each option on the wheel has an equal chance — the animation is for suspense, not the outcome.
How to Use the Wheel Spinner
- 1. Enter the options. One per line, from 2 to 20. The wheel redraws as you type, and the counter under the box tells you when you have too few or too many. A starter list of six meals is already there — replace it.
- 2. Spin. Press Spin. The wheel turns for about four seconds and the segment under the pointer at the top wins. The winner is announced below the wheel in full, even if its label is shortened on the wheel itself.
- 3. Choose what happens to winners. Tick Remove winner after spin and each winner comes off the wheel, so repeated spins work through the whole list. Reset Wheel restores every option.
- 4. Adjust the odds if you need to. Every option gets a segment of equal size. List an option twice and it gets two segments — twice the chance.
How the Wheel Chooses
The result is fixed the moment you press the button. The page first draws the winning segment from your browser's cryptographic random source (crypto.getRandomValues) with rejection sampling, so each of the n options has exactly a 1/n chance, then turns the wheel — four full turns (1,440°) plus whatever extra angle brings that segment under the pointer, away from its edges. The animation is only the picture of a decision already made, and the options box is locked while the wheel turns so the list cannot change under a result that is already set. The draw is not seeded and cannot be replayed; it suits classroom decisions and parties, and for a prize with real value you should still run it in public.
Worked Examples
| Wheel | Chance for each spin | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| The six starter meals | 1/6 each, about 16.7% | The same meal can win twice in a row — a 1-in-6 chance each time you spin without removal. |
| Seven lines: six options, one of them listed twice | 2/7 ≈ 28.6% for the doubled option, 1/7 ≈ 14.3% for each other | Duplicate lines are the way to weight a wheel. |
| Five chores, remove winner on | Every order of the five is equally likely: 5! = 120 possibilities | Five spins hand out every chore exactly once, so nobody argues about repeats. |
| Twenty options (the maximum) | 1/20 = 5% each | Each segment spans 18°, so labels are tight; the wheel shows the first 11 characters of a long label and an ellipsis. |
Which Tool Do You Need?
A wheel is for a decision people want to watch — one result per spin, a short list, a bit of suspense. For other jobs a different tool fits better:
| If you want… | Use |
|---|---|
| A watchable pick from 2–20 options, one spin at a time | This Wheel Spinner |
| A long list of names, several winners at once, or a history of every draw | Random Name Picker |
| Everyone sorted into teams | Random Group Generator |
| Gift pairs where nobody draws themselves or a partner | Secret Santa Generator |
| Knockout or round-robin matches with seeding | Tournament Bracket Generator |
| A reproducible, recorded allocation for a study | Random Assignment Generator |
Frequently Asked Questions
- How do I use the wheel spinner?
- Type your options into the box, one per line — between 2 and 20 — and the wheel draws itself. Press Spin, wait for it to stop, and read the winner in the panel under the wheel.
- Is the wheel spinner fair?
- Each segment has the same size, and the winning segment is drawn uniformly with your browser's cryptographic random source and rejection sampling, so every option has an exactly equal chance on every spin. It is a software-generated draw rather than a certified one, so it suits classroom decisions and giveaways. The animation does not influence the result.
- Can I stop the same option from winning twice?
- Yes. Tick Remove winner after spin and each winner is taken off the wheel before the next spin. Reset Wheel puts everything back. With removal off, spins are independent, so a repeat is entirely possible.
- How many options can the wheel hold?
- At least 2 and at most 20. Below 2 there is nothing to choose between, and above 20 the segments become too narrow to read. For longer lists use the Random Name Picker, which has no fixed cap.
- Can I make some options more likely than others?
- Add the option more than once. Every line gets its own equal-sized segment, so an option listed twice on a seven-line wheel wins 2 spins in 7 on average. There is no weight field, so use whole-number ratios.
- What can I use a spinner wheel for in class?
- Choosing who answers next, which topic to review, which team presents first, who gets which chore or a brain-break activity. It works well on a projector because the suspense does some of the engagement for you. For random assignment in an experiment, use a seeded tool instead, so the allocation can be reproduced and reported.