Yes or No Wheel

The odds are the same in both, so choose by the situation. The wheel is better when other people are watching: a class, friends picking a restaurant, a stream or a shared screen. The few seconds of spinning add some suspense, and everyone can see the answer was not chosen by hand.

The instant yes or no generator is better when you are deciding on your own and want the answer now, or when you want several answers quickly, such as a best of 3. If your device is set to reduce motion, the wheel fades to its answer instead of spinning, in either mode.

Yes. The answer is drawn before the wheel moves, using crypto.getRandomValues(), the cryptographic random number generator built into your browser. The tool then works out how far to turn the wheel so that it stops on that answer, at a random point inside one of its segments. Where the wheel started, how long it spins and when you click have no effect on the result: the animation only shows an answer that has already been drawn.

A wheel that takes its answer from wherever an animation happens to stop is only as fair as that animation's math. Drawing first and animating second means the odds do not depend on it. Each spin is also a fresh draw that knows nothing about the one before, so a YES does not make a NO more likely next time.

• Small decisions: order takeout or cook, one more episode or bed, go for a run or rest. If you catch yourself hoping for one answer while the wheel spins, that tells you what you wanted anyway.
• Classrooms: decide which team answers first, or whether the class gets a bonus question. To call on a student by number use the random number generator, and for spelling and word games the random letter generator.
• Games and dares: let the wheel decide whether a player takes the challenge, or settle a house rule nobody can agree on.
• Tiebreakers: two people want the last slice, or a vote is split down the middle. Best of 3 feels fairer to the side that loses the first spin.
• Plans: once the wheel says yes to a day out, the random date generator can pick the day.

Yes. In Yes / No and Instant answer, YES and NO each have exactly a 50% chance on every spin. With Maybe added, each of the three answers has a 1 in 3 chance: three does not divide the random values evenly, so the draw discards the few values that would tip the split, and no answer gets even a fractional edge. Best of 3 does not change the odds either, since YES and NO are equally likely to win the series.

The wheel repeats each answer around its edge for a livelier spin: four YES and four NO segments, or two each of YES, NO and MAYBE. Every segment is the same size and every answer has the same number of them, so the wheel looks the way the odds are.

Streaks are a normal part of random results. Any five spins in a row have a 1 in 16 chance of all matching: 1 in 32 for five YES answers and 1 in 32 for five NO. Over 20 spins there is about a 46% chance of a run of five or more somewhere, and over 50 spins it is more than 80%. People expect random answers to alternate more often than they do, so a streak can look suspicious when it is exactly what chance produces. Over many spins the share of YES answers in the tally settles close to half, while short runs keep coming and going.

Yes. Choose Yes / No / Maybe above the wheel to add MAYBE alongside YES and NO, each on two of six equal segments, so each answer has a 1 in 3 chance. Instant answer always gives a plain yes or no. The mode you choose stays selected for the rest of your visit, and the page address ends in #maybe while it is on, so you can bookmark the wheel set up that way.

No. Your question stays in the box on your device and is only repeated above the answer. It is not saved, sent to a server or included in analytics. The tally is kept in the page's memory and resets when you reload or close it. The only things remembered are which mode you picked, until you close the tab, and whether Tick sound is on, in this browser.

This wheel only answers yes, no or maybe. To choose between your own options, such as restaurants, names or chores, enter them one per line in the Random Choice Generator. It picks one at random with the same cryptographic randomness, and can draw several winners or remove each one from the list as it goes.