Random Time Wheel
Press Spin for a time of day. For half hours or minutes, choose a finer list under “Choose a list”.
No spins yet. Each pick is listed here in order.
About the random time wheel
The wheel opens with the 24 full hours of the day, 12:00 AM through 11:00 PM, and each has a 1 in 24 chance (4.17%). Under “Choose a list” are three finer wheels: “Every half hour” with 48 times (2.08% each), “Every 15 minutes” with 96 (1.04%) and “Every 5 minutes” with 288 (0.347%).
Every time carries AM or PM, as on a 12-hour clock, so 12:00 AM means midnight and 12:00 PM means noon. What comes up is one time of day, picked at random. The wheel does not know what time it is now, and it sets no alarm.
To spin for only part of the day, delete the lines you do not want before you start. Keep 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, for example, and what is left is a wheel of waking hours. The wheel keeps your cut-down list in this browser, so it is still there on your next visit.
Ways to use a random time of day
- Clock-reading practice: spin a time, then have students set the hands of a paper clock to match.
- Fill in a made-up schedule for a story character, one spin per event of the day.
- Let a spin settle when a chore or a phone call gets done.
- Hand out time slots for a game: each player spins once and plays in the slot the wheel names.
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 wheel 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 wheel turns, not the size of your screen. The pointer 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 random time wheel
- Why are the slices blank on “Every 5 minutes”?
- That list has 288 times, and labels are hidden on any wheel with more than 150 entries. The result window shows the time, and the other three lists show a label on every slice.
- Can I get a time to the exact minute?
- Not from the 4 lists here: the finest one moves in steps of 5 minutes. You can still type any time into the list, on a line of its own.
- How do I give several people different time slots?
- Switch on “Remove the winner after each spin” before the first person spins. A time that has been picked then leaves the wheel, so each person or task gets a slot of its own.
- Where can I see every time on the wheel?
- In the list box next to the wheel, which holds every time on the list you chose. The lists are not printed lower on this page.