How to use the Spin the Wheel (Random Wheel Spinner)
- Type your options in the box on the right (below the wheel on mobile), one per line. You can also separate them with commas.
- The wheel redraws its slices as soon as you change the list. You can also use Load an example to get a lunch, dares or numbers wheel right away.
- Press the Spin button or tap the wheel. It spins for about 5 seconds, then stops, and the option under the pointer is shown as the result.
- To keep the same option from coming up again, turn on Remove the picked option from the next spin. This is handy when you are drawing several winners.
How is the result decided? (How a random wheel works)
The moment the wheel starts spinning, Tooljip uses your browser's cryptographic random number generator (crypto.getRandomValues) to choose the slice it will land on and the exact spot inside that slice. It then calculates a slow-down animation so the wheel comes to rest naturally on that point. Unlike a physical wheel, the result doesn't depend on how hard you spin it, so every slice has exactly the same chance of being picked.
With n options, each one has a 1 in n chance. For example, if you enter 8 lunch ideas, each has a 12.5% chance. To make one option more likely, enter it on two lines. It then takes up 2 of the 8 slices, so its chance goes up to 25%.
Tips for using a lunch wheel
- Save your list of nearby places - Your options are saved automatically in this browser, so you can spin the same list every day.
- Skip what you had yesterday - Turn on the remove option and spin once. On the next spin, that choice is gone and you can pick again from what's left.
- Pick in two rounds - First spin a wheel of cuisines, such as Italian, Mexican, Chinese and Indian. Then spin again with dishes from the cuisine that came up. Splitting the choice like this makes a long list of options much easier to deal with.
Ideas for dares and prize draws
| Situation | Example options | Suggested setting |
|---|---|---|
| Party or team night dares | Sing a song, Buy coffee, Pass! | Remove picked option: off |
| Raffle or giveaway | Participant names | Remove picked option: on (no one wins twice) |
| Presentation order | Participant names | On, then spin once per person |
| Choosing today's task | Exercise, Reading, Cleaning, Studying | Off |
If you need to put everyone in order at once, Pinball Picker or the Ladder Game is quicker. If you need several random numbers, try the Random Number Generator.
Your list stays on your device
The wheel runs entirely in your browser. Your options and recent results are kept only in this browser's local storage, so the wheel is ready the next time you visit. Nothing is sent to a server, so you can safely use real names for a classroom or office draw.