The wheels vs. doors argument has gone viral on TikTok, with users debating whether there are more doors or wheels in the world. The hashtags “wheels vs doors” and “doors vs wheels” have garnered over 457.2 million combined views. The debate originated on Twitter where a man named Ryan Nixon posed the question using a Twitter poll. 46.4% of people answered doors, and 53.6% answered wheels. However, contrary to popular opinion, there are more doors than wheels in the world.
One popular argument among wheel enthusiasts is that toys that resemble cars like lego and hot wheels produce millions of wheels every year. However, cars also have 4 doors, so the amount of wheels and doors cancels out.
On the other hand, doors can be found anywhere you look. Merriam Webster defines a door as a usually swinging or sliding barrier by which an entry is closed and opened. This means the openings to cabinets and lockers are considered doors. It also means a heart valve, which functions as a flap allowing blood to enter and exit, is a door. There are about 7.7 billion people on earth, and each heart has 4 valves. There are over 130,000 schools in the United States alone, the majority of which contain thousands of lockers. Lockers are also found in gyms, public pools, and workplaces. There are about 2.3 billion houses in the world that contain front doors, back doors, bathroom doors, garage doors, cabinet doors, and fridge doors. Carlo Ratti, professor of urban studies and planning at MIT believes there are more doors than wheels. He believes the doors inside offices, restaurants, shops, and supermarkets outnumber the wheels. Furthermore, the United States Postal service alone has 21 million P.O boxes. Skyscrapers and cruise ships both have thousands of doors and only a limited number of wheels. In these types of debates, the answer may not be the obvious one, but instead, simply be in plain sight.
Ryan Sullivan
Staff Writer
Graphic: Kate Minn