Arrow Spinner
Press Spin on the arrow, or click anywhere on the dial. The arrow turns and stops pointing at one section.
No spins yet. Each pick is listed here in order.
About the arrow spinner
The dial opens with 8 numbered sections, each with a 1 in 8 chance (12.5%). Under “Choose a list” there are three more dials: “1 to 6” (1 in 6, 16.7%), “1 to 4” (1 in 4, 25%) and “Four colors”, where Red, Blue, Green and Yellow get 25% each and every section is painted in its own color.
Here the dial stays still and the arrow in the middle of it spins, the way the spinner in a board game works. It never comes to rest on a line between two sections. When it stops, a result window names the section under the words “The arrow points to”.
To stand in for the lost spinner of a board game, choose the dial with the same number of sections, or type what the old spinner showed, one entry per line: moves, point values, colors. All sections are the same size, so an entry that should be twice as likely as the others goes on two lines.
When an arrow spinner comes in handy
- Pick a number for a classroom game: the arrow can decide how many steps to take or which numbered question comes next.
- Name four teams Red, Blue, Green and Yellow and let “Four colors” choose which team answers next.
- Lay a phone or tablet flat on the table and spin the arrow: it points toward one side of the table, and whoever sits there goes first.
- Fill the list with point values and spin once per turn to see what that turn is worth.
How to use the wheel
- Type or paste your options, one per line. The wheel redraws as you type.
- Press Spin, click the wheel, or press Ctrl+Enter while you are in the list.
- Read the pick. Remove it from the wheel if nobody should be picked twice, then spin again.
How the pick is made
Before the arrow moves, your browser draws one slice at random with crypto.getRandomValues, the same generator browsers use for security keys. Every slice has the same chance. The spin you watch only plays that result out.
Nothing about the animation changes the outcome: not how hard you click, not how long the arrow turns, not the size of your screen. The arrow always stops inside a slice, never on a line.
Your list stays in your browser. A link you copy carries the list inside the link itself, so nothing is uploaded.
Questions about the arrow spinner
- Can I put players’ names on the dial?
- Yes. Type the names in the list, one per line, and every name gets one section. The line under the dial shows how many sections there are and the chance of each.
- Can it stand in for a six-sided die?
- Yes. Choose “1 to 6”: its 6 numbers are equally likely, like the faces of one six-sided die.
- Can the arrow skip a section it has already pointed to?
- Yes. Turn on “Remove the winner after each spin” under the list, and each picked section leaves the dial as its result window closes. On a list of names that means nobody is picked twice.
- Will my own dial still be there next time?
- Yes, in the same browser. An edited list is saved there for this page, so the dial you set up for one game is waiting on your next visit. It is not shared between devices.