In a viral tweet earlier this month, a New Zealand rugby league manager asked a divisive question: Are there more doors or wheels in the world?
“My friends and I are having the DUMBEST debate… And I’m here for it,” wrote Ryan Nixon. Wheels won the poll, winning 53.6 percent of the 223,347 votes.
Weeks later, the debate is still bubbling on TikTok. The tags #DoorsVsWheels and and #wheesvsdoors have 240.8. million views and 143.8 million views, respectively.
Nixon believes that the debate is so enduring because there is no data to prove that both sides are right.
“When you’re having a discussion with your friends, it’s so easy to just jump on Google and win or lose the argument, but there’s no answer for this one,” he told the Guardian† “It would take forever to solve it.”
And on TikTok, each side tries to defend its case.
TikTok user scarlettmay04 couldn’t decide and posted a video highlighting the evidence for each side.
“but now I think there are more doors than wheels because cars usually have 4 wheels AND 4 doors so they cancel each other out,” she wrote in the video† “and then there are skyscrapers with thousands of doors, but they also have [tons] from office chairs with a bunch of wheels on them… so now I’m really struggling… are there more doors or wheels, I really couldn’t say.”
Arguments for Team Doors include pointing out the sheer number of shipping containers used every day, all of which have doors. Others from Team Doors defended their position by pointing to the number of doors used in tall buildings and cruise ships.
Some users are pushing the definition of “doors,” claiming that anything with a hinge — such as a letterbox or locker — is a door.
GoPro took a stance, pointing out that the company has sold 50 million cameras, all equipped with tiny “doors.”
In one argument in favor of Team Doors, a TikTok user jokingly reminded viewers of the seemingly never-ending doors in “Monsters, Inc.”
Those on Team Wheels have argued that anything that spins can be a wheel — including revolving doors. Many defensive wheels have also noted that for any building with doors, numerous wheels are used, such as on office chairs or shopping carts.
One TikTok user joked that the presence of mini-wheel-shaped pasta is proof enough.
UPS weighed in by counting the total number of wheels and doors on its fleet of more than 120,000 vehicles. The verdict: 768,000 wheels and 510,000 doors.
Hank Green, widely hailed as the voice of reason and science on the internet, sided with Team Wheels. The wheels on his children’s toy cars were functional, but the doors were not.
“Still with wheels,” he concluded.
Overall, it seems that TikTok users prefer Team Wheels over Team Doors. The #teamdoors and #teamdoor tags have 48.4 million and 35.9 million views, compared to the #teamwheels and #teamwheel tags, which have 109 million and 17.6 million views, respectively.
Nixon, whose tweet sparked the debate, added that the passion of both sides’ argument fuels it even further.
“The great thing is that people can take sides and argue for or against,” Nixon told The Guardian. “And some people do that quite aggressively.”