The Conversation (0)
Sinead Butler
Mar 16, 2022
Police detained a sofa on wheels on the road
Video
Whether it's Laurel vs Yanny or the blue and black vs white and gold dress there's one thing we can all agree on - people on the internet love a good old debate, and this recent one has certainly divided Twitter.
It began when Ryan Nixon (@NewYorkNixon) from Aukland, New Zealand inadvertently saw his innocent debate with friends turn into viral online discourse after sharing what they were going back and forth about.
In his tweet, Nixon wrote: "My mates and I are having the STUPIDEST debate... And I am here for it," before proposing the question "Do you think there are more doors or wheels in the world?"
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To gauge what people were thinking, he added a poll to see what the general consensus was - and oh boy did people pay attention, with over 223,000 votes cast.
My mates and I are having the STUPIDEST debate...\n\nAnd I am here for it. \n\nDo you think there are more doors or wheels in the world?— Ryan Nixon (@Ryan Nixon) 1646462945
Team Doors were arguing that there are doors in every building and on every vehicle - so that is quite a big amount.
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— David Banks (@David Banks) 1646567560
Doors.\n\nFour door cars and trucks nullify themselves.\n\nAll ships have doors, no wheels.\nAll buildings have doors, no wheels.\n\nDoors.— Justin Hubert \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08 \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Justin Hubert \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08 \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1646535791
In my household there are 29 doors (including fridge, cupboards, washing machine, tumble dryer and car) \n\nGot 4 wheels on my car and the hamster has a wheel, can\u2019t think of any more wheels \n\nI\u2019m saying doors— Matt Daubney \ud83c\udfcf (@Matt Daubney \ud83c\udfcf) 1646483869
Lolpic.twitter.com/z0WHfAkzq4— Adam (@Adam) 1646577457
Must be doors.\n\nCars have 4 wheels and let's say an average of 4 doors so offset each other.\n\nI have 15 doors in my house and I can only count 6 wheels from a cabinet and bicycle.\n\nOffice/apartment buildings. Cupboards/cabinets.\n\nAlthough, toys with wheels and bikes...— David \ud83c\udff4\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc62\udb40\udc73\udb40\udc63\udb40\udc74\udb40\udc7f\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83c\udfae (@David \ud83c\udff4\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc62\udb40\udc73\udb40\udc63\udb40\udc74\udb40\udc7f\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83c\udfae) 1646560064
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.— Loukas Christodoulou (@Loukas Christodoulou) 1646573289
In the UK alone 16 million advent calendars are sold each year. That\u2019s 384-400 million doors (depending on whether they include the 25th, which is hit and miss I find).— Tristan Carlyle (@Tristan Carlyle) 1646551342
On the other hand, those on team wheels mentioned different objects that include multiple wheels on them (we can't forget about toy cars) which they think puts them ahead of doors.
Door voters forgetting about these things:pic.twitter.com/8r4HfIlXYX— Matt Dobrin (@Matt Dobrin) 1646543926
Very solidly wheels. All cars have 4 wheels but 2-4 doors. An average home might have 6-10 doors but it also has 3 suitcases with 6-12 wheels. A collection of toy cars might have 400 wheels.— Renkitt \ud83e\udd81\ud83e\udd81\ud83e\udd81 (@Renkitt \ud83e\udd81\ud83e\udd81\ud83e\udd81) 1646556615
Hmm, you've got to see the bigger picture (and given there's is no qualification on wheels/doors)\n\nThe biggest tire maker in the world is Lego, 381M tires per year (more than the 2 biggest vehicle tire makers).\n\nGiven each one has a wheel, I think we have a winner.— Mark Chapman (@Mark Chapman) 1646606350
Has anyone thought about toys? In any home with kids or grandkids there are far, far more wheels than doors.— Kirstie Allsopp (@Kirstie Allsopp) 1646553014
Just did a count up and reckon 25 doors in our house (including cupboards, wardrobes) and about 36 wheels including vehicles, bikes, golf trundlers. I'm going wheels but this pointless exercise has taught me there's heaps more of each than you'd think!— Jimmy Shaw (@Jimmy Shaw) 1646464899
it\u2019s wheels. i will argue until my dying breath. it\u2019s wheels.https://twitter.com/NewYorkNixon/status/1500000428985286657\u00a0\u2026— Quinn x (@Quinn x) 1646792265
Must be wheels. Wheels is one of the earliest human invention. Not only in vehicles, also in roller blades, suitcases, chairs etc. Wheels also made each day more than doorshttps://twitter.com/NewYorkNixon/status/1500000428985286657\u00a0\u2026— rahwana (@rahwana) 1646780878
definitely wheels although i bet it\u2019s very close, especially since google says a cog counts as a wheelhttps://twitter.com/newyorknixon/status/1500000428985286657\u00a0\u2026— julia x (@julia x) 1646758471
@LEGO_Group make a lot of tyres so they also much make a lot of doors. I am going doors\u2026 however do steering wheels, flywheels count.https://twitter.com/NewYorkNixon/status/1500000428985286657\u00a0\u2026— D a v i d B r o o k s (@D a v i d B r o o k s) 1646640388
Some were even debating what actually qualifies as a door and a wheel.
Perhaps some definitions will help - according to Oxford Languages a door is "a hinged, sliding, or revolving barrier at the entrance to a building, room, or vehicle, or in the framework of a cupboard."
Meanwhile, the same dictionary defines wheels as "a circular object that revolves on an axle and is fixed below a vehicle or other object to enable it to move easily over the ground."
I spent far too long on this please like and subscribepic.twitter.com/qeImmTuoPH— Mr.Darcy sans money and good breeding (@Mr.Darcy sans money and good breeding) 1646540241
Where do we stand on flaps? Is a cat flap a type of door? Are those beads that hang down in butchers to separate the back of the butchers to the front a type of door?— JP \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@JP \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1646553073
My answer depends on whether a hinge is a wheel and an axlepic.twitter.com/wXCsMU8fl6— disasteradio / eyeliner in 2 person horse costume (@disasteradio / eyeliner in 2 person horse costume) 1646470013
From the answers, I think you cannot answer this question without first defining what is a door and what is a wheel. Many wheel like things are not called or generally considered wheels (e.g. pullys or rollers). Same with doors (e.g. the part that swings open on luggage).— Schr\u00f6dinger (@Schr\u00f6dinger) 1646563911
While some were left completely perplexed by the question and couldn't begin to fathom an answer.
Four days on my brain is still in pieces over thishttps://twitter.com/newyorknixon/status/1500000428985286657\u00a0\u2026— Liam Fountain (@Liam Fountain) 1646831270
you have ruined my life, i\u2019ve lost sleep over this.https://twitter.com/newyorknixon/status/1500000428985286657\u00a0\u2026— izzy williams (@izzy williams) 1646779034
This has made my head fall completely offhttps://twitter.com/newyorknixon/status/1500000428985286657\u00a0\u2026— Beth (@Beth) 1646764303
im having an aneurysm trying to think about thishttps://twitter.com/newyorknixon/status/1500000428985286657\u00a0\u2026— giulia (@giulia) 1646725021
This has sent me into a spiral and I can\u2019t escape ithttps://twitter.com/NewYorkNixon/status/1500000428985286657\u00a0\u2026— Lewis Conner (@Lewis Conner) 1646602221
Considering the sheer amount of people who responded, the result was actually pretty close with doors receiving 46.% of the vote, while wheels won after gaining 53.6% of votes - meaning most people think there are more wheels in the world than doors.
Though it seems we'll never know for sure...
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