Drawing straws

Drawing straws is a selection method, or a form of sortition, that is used by a group to choose one member of the group to perform a task after none has volunteered for it. The same practice can be used also to choose one of several volunteers, should an agreement not be reached. It is a form of the practice of drawing lots, only using straws instead.

The group leader takes a number of straws (or similarly long cylindrical objects) and ensures that one of them is physically shorter than the others. The leader then grabs all of the straws in his fist, such that all of them appear to be of the same length.

The group leader offers the clenched fist to the group. Each member of the group draws a straw from the fist of the group leader. At the end of the offering, the group member who has drawn the shortest straw is the one who must perform the task.

This practice is epitomized in the cliché "drawing the short straw"—to mean being randomly, unluckily, or unfairly selected to perform a task, at the risk of suffering a penalty.

Drawing straws is a fair game; every participant has a ${\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{N}}}$ chance to draw a short straw and ${\displaystyle {\tfrac {N-1}{N}}}$ chance NOT to draw it, where ${\displaystyle {N}}$ is the initial number of straws before the drawing starts.

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