Random Number Between 1 and 3
The smallest range where the odds stop feeling intuitive. Each number lands about 33.3% of the time.
3 possible numbers, 1 to 3.
The odds on 1 to 3
There are 3 possible results, each with a 33.33% chance. Every draw is independent - a number coming up once does not make it any less likely next time, and long gaps between a particular number appearing are ordinary rather than meaningful.
Three-way splits are where gut feeling breaks down
People are reasonably good at sensing a 50/50 and hopeless at sensing a one-in-three. Over thirty draws you should expect around ten of each, but runs of four or five identical results are completely ordinary and are the point at which most people wrongly decide the generator is broken.
Drawing several at once
Set the count above one to draw more than one number. Repeats are off by default, so each number comes out once - which is what a raffle or a lottery line needs. Turn them on when the draws should be independent of each other.
Checking the result
Every draw is generated from your browser's cryptographic random number generator and comes with a receipt recording the range, the seed and the result, so anyone can reproduce it. Here is how that works. To set a different range, the main generator takes any values you like.
Other ranges
- 1 to 2A coin flip in number form. Useful when you want the result recorded as a value rather than a face.
- 1 to 4Four-way choice: quarters of a group, the four suits, or a d4 without the dice.
- 1 to 5Five options, 20% each. The usual shape for a shortlist you have already narrowed down.
- 1 to 6A standard die, without the die. The most-searched small range there is.
- 1 to 7Seven days, seven options. Common for picking a day of the week at random.
- 1 to 8Eight-way splits: bracket seeds, octagon positions, or a group of eight.
- 1 to 9Single digits excluding zero. Handy for grids, puzzles and Sudoku-style setups.
- 1 to 10The default mental range. Ten options, 10% each, easy to sanity-check.