Have you ever stopped to think about whether there are more wheels or doors in the world? No, you wouldn't, obviously.
Until now, that is.
On Saturday, March 5, Twitter user Ryan Nixon tweeted the following: "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?"
Since then, social media users across various platforms have been entertaining the debate: Are there more wheels or doors in the world?
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A surprising 223,347 people responded to the poll, with 46.4% of users claiming there are more doors and the remaining 53.6% claiming there are more wheels.
It seems like a sort of silly debate, but folks on the internet are engaging in what is becoming a really heated debate about doors and wheels. If you're wondering why the heck does anyone care about this?, you're certainly not alone.
Why is everyone wondering whether there are more wheels or doors in the world?
If someone came up to you and randomly asked, "Are there more wheels or doors in the world?" you'd probably have a gut instinct answer. But then, you may sit on the question a while, and start to think about all of the buildings with doors, and all of the structures with wheels... and then your brain is being scratched in a way your brain has probably only been scratched by life's most existential questions.
Folks might remember the Buzzfeed dress phenomenon of 2015, when a highly contested debate about whether a cocktail dress was blue and black, or white and gold, took the world by storm.
Unlike this wheels vs. doors discussion, there was a real answer to this debate, as one girl claimed that she saw the dress in person, and she saw it was blue and black. Color scientists got involved and reported that they concluded it was blue and black.
This sort of unimportant debate has proven to be an essential component of social media culture. Unlike other internet discussions, such as that of the 2015 dress that will go down in infamy, this wheels vs. doors question doesn't rely on your personal perspective or how you physically see something — it's a matter of logic that would be nearly impossible to solve. Which, of course, scratches our brains in a new and interesting way, making us all vigorously curious about the inane question of whether the number of doors in the world is greater than the number of wheels.
The question is just random, like "is a hot dog a sandwich?" It has no technical answer — but simply put, it's kind of fun to debate.
Point blank: there is no way to know whether there are more wheels than doors.
Logic tells us that there could be an answer to this question — but how would anyone possibly be able to measure a question of such stature in the mere time of an average lifespan?
But, people on the internet think otherwise, believing that they just know whether there are more doors than wheels in the world — which, of course, they don't. Twitter users have put their logic and reasoning skills to the test trying to solve this essentially impossible query.
One user tried to do the math, estimating the average doors and wheels a family might have in their home.
"hmmm...every average house say 20 doors...every family 18 wheels...every bus 8 wheels two doors train 80 wheels 4doors...," they wrote. "Hospitals, schools, hundreds of doors no wheels...bicyles 2 Wheels no doors...my GUESS DOORS."
Others stand firm on the fact that wheels are more abundant.
People are also wondering what constitutes a "wheel" and a "door." (Yes, seriously.) Does a gate count as a door? What about a cabinet? And does a rollerball on a perfume bottle count as a wheel? As you can see, there are many variables to this annoyingly vague question, which makes it even harder to figure out.
At the end of the day, there is no right answer, and the likelihood of there ever being one is very, very low. So, if you think there are more wheels, and your friend thinks there are more doors, there's no need to start a riot. And you should probably get back to whatever you were doing before you started thinking about this.
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
