Is there more wheels or doors in the world?

The question that is rocking the internet right now

Image by Author via Canva

Are There More Doors or Wheels in the World? (SOLVED)

The world is afire with the question, “Are there more doors or wheels in the world?”

The internet is no place for reasonable discussion. This is a lesson that was recently learned in the most painful way by Auckland resident Ryan Nixon, who last weekend made the innocent mistake of asking Twitter whether there were more doors or wheels in the world.

A whopping 223,347 people replied and filled out his poll, with 53.6% of them guessing there were more wheels in the world. One guy worked out a complex formula on a piece of paper. Others argued that a wheel can be a door but a door cannot be a wheel. One particularly deep thinker pointed out that, while wheels are a human invention, doors “are primal – even celestial – in nature”. The debate, which will never be definitively resolved, continues. Sorry for putting it into your brain.

This sort of pointless argument has become an important part of online life. Who could possibly forget the palaver about The Dress in 2015, when a woman took a photo of her wedding outfit and then had an argument with her daughter about whether it was white and gold or blue and black? At its peak, 11,000 tweets were posted about The Dress every minute, as friends and families tore themselves apart in disagreement. It became so heated that scientific papers were written about the phenomenon.

As fun as it is to debate colours of things with strangers, The Dress debate had a definitive answer: a cursory amount of research takes you back to where the dress was bought, which quickly and conclusively proved that it was blue and black.

Is there more wheels or doors in the world?

How does a dog wear trousers? Photograph: WilleeCole/Getty Images/iStockphoto

If Doors v Wheels has any sort of precedent, it’s How Would A Dog Wear Trousers from 2015, in which a Facebook user asked if trousers for dogs should cover the bottom 50% of a dog (four legs, tummy, no tail) or the back 50% (back legs, tail, no front legs). This is perhaps the hardest question of them all to answer. Logic says that a pair of trousers should cover up all your legs, but your heart tells you that a pair of trousers with four legs isn’t a pair of trousers at all. A dog wearing trousers on its hind quarters, meanwhile, looks more human – but, again, that argument is undone by the fact that a dog isn’t human.

Humanity does potentially have the resources to carry out a full global audit of the world’s doors and wheels. But none of us, as long as we live, will ever possess the ability to ask a dog what sort of trousers it would theoretically prefer to wear. The question itself is a fool’s errand. So, despite humanity’s inherent need for objective truth, there can never be a conclusive answer – to this, or indeed many of the internet’s daftest debates. And that, in the end, is why we love them.

09 March 2022

Is there more wheels or doors in the world?

When Ryan Nixon asked a simple question to Twitter, he didn’t think it would cause the internet to jump on the debate and go viral. Nixon shared that he and his mates were having the ‘STUPIDEST debate’ and asked the internet, "Do you think there are more doors or wheels in the world?” 

Taking to Twitter, Nixon shared with a poll, "My mates and I are having the STUPIDEST debate... And I am here for it. Do you think there are more doors or wheels in the world?”

The results of the poll are fairly even, however, the poll’s final results showed 53.6% of people thought wheels, just beating the 46.4% of people saying doors.

My mates and I are having the STUPIDEST debate...

And I am here for it.

Do you think there are more doors or wheels in the world?

— Ryan Nixon (@NewYorkNixon) March 5, 2022

With over 220,000 votes and almost 4K retweets (at the time of writing), the internet has passionately shared their opinions on the debate, some team “Wheels” and some team “Doors.” Some answers were simple and some were more complex. 

Some even were so invested in discovering the answer it kept them pondering and confused. They wrote, "This has RUINED productivity everywhere I’ve spread it,” and "This single tweet has had my brain BOGGLED all day,” and “you have ruined my life, i’ve lost sleep over this.” 

That’s me awake for the foreseeable. https://t.co/4IbhM1QFig pic.twitter.com/PQiK3xB1pO

— May (@GruSue) March 8, 2022

Here is what Twitter is saying:

I like this explanation https://t.co/jEYRjPZVPj

— 🩴𝕂𝕒𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕁𝕠 🇺🇲💚🏳️‍🌈 (@kathijo) March 6, 2022

I spent far too long on this please like and subscribe pic.twitter.com/qeImmTuoPH

— Mr.Darcy sans money and good breeding (@FuriousLives) March 6, 2022

Hmm, you've got to see the bigger picture (and given there's is no qualification on wheels/doors)

The biggest tire maker in the world is Lego, 381M tires per year (more than the 2 biggest vehicle tire makers).

Given each one has a wheel, I think we have a winner.

— Mark Chapman (@m4rkchapman) March 6, 2022

In the world:
1bn cars (4bn wheels)
1bn bicycles
Scooters, motorbikes, etc etc
They are smaller and there are just more instances where they can be used (shopping trolley, toy, vacuum). They also need to be used in pairs/groups for stability therefore more

— Renkitt 🦁🦁🦁 (@Widerife81) March 6, 2022

Surely doors. Every house as at least five doors on average and there are 2.5 billion houses in the world. Not to mention garages and sheds.
I also can't believe I spent two minutes of my life wrapping my brain around this.

— The NZ Majority (@thenzmajority) March 5, 2022

Using the ideology that wheels are only for vehicles and doors only count if they can be walked through.

Think it’s quite clear that doors win. Let me know if I’ve missed anything major or something needs explaining. #wheelsvsdoors @whujoe pic.twitter.com/yvyOZYgmoP

— Alex 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (@LFCALEX_7) March 7, 2022

The debate has also carried onto viral video platform TikTok with users sharing videos of their thoughts. One group even went around their office to get the opinions of their colleagues. 

@lumberlendhq What do YOU a think IB: @_emchamberlin #lumberlend #lumberlendhq ♬ original sound - LumberlendHQ
@fortnit3player69 wheels ftw #wheelsvsdoors #wheels #doors #devate #argue #fyp ♬ original sound - Jack Neely
@ellie_bav 24 tiny doors… #doorsvswheels ♬ original sound - Icy Trey
@carla_oroz think about drawers people #wheelsordoors #doors #wheels #fyp #foryou #LinkBudsNeverOff #OREOBdayStack #teamwheels ♬ original sound - Icy Trey

Obviously, the debate is almost impossible to settle without individually counting all of the wheels and doors that exist in the world and even comes down to what one defines as a wheel or door. No definitive answer seems to be around yet, but we'd love to see one. Which team are you on?

Image Credits: (strajinsky + Paul Vowles / Shutterstock.com | @NewYorkNixon / Twitter)