Are there more doors or wheels in the world? The internet debate explained

If there’s one thing that the internet absolutely loves, it’s a good debate and, ideally, the more ridiculous the better.

For many, where you fall on one side of the argument becomes a piece of who you are – were you a diehard black and blue dress, or were you a gold and white believer? Team Laurel or Team Yanny?

The latest question taking social media by storm will have you declaring your allegiance to doors or wheels.

This is everything you need to know.

The question that everyone appears to have been debating online recently is this: are there more doors or wheels in the world?

It all began when, on 5 March, a Twitter user named Ryan Nixon tweeted: “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?”

Included in his tweet was a poll, prompting fellow users to vote on their answer – doors or wheels?

The tweet has since garnered nearly 4,000 retweets, almost 3,000 quote tweets, over 11,000 likes and the poll attracted over 220,000 overall votes.

Unlike the previously mentioned dress debate and the Laurel versus Yanny debacle, there isn’t really a hard and fast correct answer here – or rather, there is a correct answer, but having humanity come together to do a mass count of doors and wheels seems unlikely.

By contrast, the original picture of the infamous dress confirmed that the answer was, in fact, black and blue, and the Laurel and Yanny audio clip was playing a recording of both names at the same time, so both answers were technically correct.

However, this hasn’t stopped passionate debaters picking a side of the doors versus wheels argument and declaring it as the hill that they will die on.

So what are people saying?

As it stands, wheels appear to be the answer favoured by the majority of people – but only just. The results of the Twitter poll showed that wheels just edged out doors with 53.6% of votes, versus the remaining 46.4%.

One person tweeted: “Who is voting doors??? There’s wheels on everything. I have wheels on my garment rack, makeup storage holder, rubbish bin. It’s definitely wheels.”

Another wrote: “Hospitals have waaaaay more wheels than doors. WAY more. Every IV stand has 3-4 wheels. Every bed, gurney, operating table, EKG machine, cart to carry laundry or food trays, charting laptops, wheels, wheels, wheels.”

“Every drawer with a runner (like a kitchen drawer) has four wheels. A car has four wheels on the floor, but it also has any number of cogs and wheels involved in its engine (not to forget the steering wheel and spare). My living room has at least 62 wheels, just 5 doors,” wrote another.

While doors appear to be the underdog answer, that hasn’t stopped people from arguing their case.

One person tweeted: “It’s clearly doors. Almost every person lives in a place with doors. Not everyone has a car. Even cars have as many doors as wheels. Not to mention cupboards.”

Another wrote: “Doors. Four door cars and trucks nullify themselves. All ships have doors, no wheels. All buildings have doors, no wheels. Doors.”

“Doors. Pretty much everything with wheels has doors, except bikes. Anyone who owns something with wheels will live in a building whose doors outnumber their wheels. Eg I own 10 wheels (2 cars, 1 bike) but 28 doors,” wrote another.

While the simplicity of the question has left many asking what counts as a wheel (is a cog a wheel?) and what counts as a door (is a garden gate a door?), this is what the Cambridge Dictionary has to say:

So what will it be – wheels or doors?

Have your say on the NationalWorld Twitter poll.

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