Wheel Spinners, Explained
Plain-English guides to random picker wheels — what they are, how a digital wheel really chooses a winner, and how to use one fairly in the classroom. No jargon, no sign-up.
These guides grow out of building an actual wheel spinner: our own Spin the Wheel tool picks its winner with crypto.getRandomValues and rejection sampling, so every slice gets an exactly equal chance no matter how many entries — up to 100 — you add, and you can weight any slice from 1x to 5x if you want some options to come up more often. The three articles below dig into that fairness in more depth, trace how a spinning wheel compares to older ways of choosing at random, such as flipping a coin or drawing straws, and cover the etiquette of using one in a classroom, from pasting a roster in one go to giving students a graceful way to pass.
What Is a Wheel Spinner? Random Picker Wheels, Explained
From carnival prize wheels to the browser tab your teacher keeps open — what a wheel spinner is, how it works, and when a spinning wheel beats every other way of choosing.
Read TeachersRandom Name Picker for the Classroom: Fair Ways to Choose Students
Cold-calling without the groans: how a name wheel keeps participation fair, keeps students engaged, and saves you from accidentally calling on the same three hands every lesson.
Read How it worksIs a Wheel Spin Really Random? How Digital Wheels Pick a Winner
The spin animation is theater — the real decision happens in a random number generator. What "cryptographically random" means, and how to tell a fair wheel from a rigged one.
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