Are There More Doors or Wheels in the World?

By: H. Esteves

https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/viral/internet-arguing-whether-are-doors-wheels-world-rcna20319

​Yes, you read that right. Inspired by a heated debate between some of our very own The Lion members, today we will scientifically and methodically take on this behemoth of a question.
 
Now, if you have absolutely no idea what’s going on, let me fill you in.
 
On March 5th, at precisely 3:49 AM twitter user “Ryan Nixon” sent out a poll asking whether there were more doors or wheels in the world—see the original tweet here—to which there was an enormous internet reaction. Not only were there hundreds of thousands of replies to the poll, but the major discussion came through multiple social media apps posting and commenting on the debate. People seem to have very strong opinions on this subject, just seemingly always on opposing sides.
 
So, as a Lion Writer, I feel it is my obligation to find the answer.
 
Let’s start with some assumptions first. In this debate, we will solely be considering doors as from the Oxford Languages definition, which defines them as “a hinged, sliding, or revolving barrier at the entrance of a room, or vehicle, or in the framework of a cupboard”. This definition is crucial as cupboard doors and vehicle doors are not always taken into consideration by some debaters—also we will disregard coffin doors as they are not used as doors, but more so as covers. Secondly, we will take the same dictionary definition for wheels, which is quite straight forward, but specifies a wheel as being “fixed below a vehicle or other object to enable it to move easily over the ground”. Thus, gears from machinery and miniature gears inside computers and such will not be considered as wheels.
 
With these definitions, you may believe that wheels are not the favorites, but you might want to think again. As one twitter account pointed out, there are more Lego wheels in the world than humans. And that’s only Legos! Not considering all the other toy cars that are out there. There is an argument that most vehicles always have more doors than wheels, for example, a car, which has at least 4 doors, the trunk, and the glove box. Nonetheless, that argument is slightly superficial as other vehicles like motorcycles, bicycles and even roller-skates have the opposite effect.
 
On the flip side, we have huge amounts of lockers and cupboards in homes and schools. And then there’s office buildings, skyscrapers, refrigerators, washing machines, supermarkets, prisons, hotels, which are filled top to bottom with doors, but nowhere near as many wheels. Think of a cruise ship, which has thousands of doors but not even one wheel! And in your home, as an example, there are several closets, cupboards, but not near as many wheels!

Fair to say that at this point of the article, even if you present additional arguments to one side, the debate is pretty evenly spread, and as a writer I was undecided myself. But then I saw this:

​https://www.aa.com.tr/en/environment/kuwait-struggling-to-get-rid-of-world-s-biggest-tire-graveyard/2332769

This is a real picture of a wheel graveyard. Wheels are constantly manufactured, which means they are constantly producing more and more, whereas doors are very rarely replaced and are manufactured at a lesser level.
 
Though, at the end of the day, you can believe me, or you can post about your own opinion on social media. I guess it goes to show how there are debates to be had over many things, even the pointless ones! Get it? Wheels, pointless? Okay I’ll stop.
 
Sources:
https://twitter.com/NewYorkNixon/status/1500000428985286657?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1500000428985286657%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fstory%2Ftech%2F2022%2F03%2F12%2Ftwitter-tiktok-more-doors-wheels-world%2F9451320002%2F
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2022/03/12/twitter-tiktok-more-doors-wheels-world/9451320002/
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/environment/kuwait-struggling-to-get-rid-of-world-s-biggest-tire-graveyard/2332769
https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/​
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