TikTok user Aidan Caroll is going viral after posting a video of roller coaster simulations matching the graphs ofcoronavirus cases in several countries.- The "Roner Coasters," Caroll told Insider, were intended to be a break from his more serious design projects in a roller coaster simulation program.
- In just two days, the video racked up over 4 million views.
- Commenters are demanding that Caroll create more.
17-year-old Aidan Caroll loves roller coasters. Now he's going viral on TikTok, thanks to his most recent design project:
"I've done a lot of projects in the past couple of days, and I just felt like I was taking myself too seriously," he told Insider, adding that he frequently creates virtual roller coasters on NoLimits 2, a program that lets users design and experience their own rides. "So I started thinking about something I could do that wouldn't be as much work and might be a little different."
In the clip, the recent high school graduate debuts and ranks the roller coasters and their corresponding countries. He commends China's "NICE drop," giving the coaster a 7/10, while the United States receives a 1/10 due to concerns over how to "get down."
Ultimately, the point of the video, he says, was to illustrate how "ridiculously high" the numbers of cases in the United States are. According to a Johns Hopkins University database, the US recorded 60,021 new cases on Tuesday.
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In just two days, the video has racked up 4.4 million views and thousands of comments from viewers impressed by his creativity and alarmed by the visual representation of coronavirus cases.
Caroll admits that he didn't expect the video to go viral — he had a 5,500-person following before posting the roller coasters — so his research and design processes weren't as thorough as he would have liked.
To make the coasters, he says, he Googled images of graphs depicting different countries' coronavirus cases over time and did his best to line up corresponding data points in the program.
"I was really just looking for what would make the best roller coaster," he said.
Commenters begged for more simulations and Caroll delivered.
In a follow-up video, he made a second round of "Roner Coasters" corresponding to coronavirus case numbers in several US states.
West Virginia scored a 5/10 for being "a little mundane" and not "mak[ing] up its mind," while Florida scored a -3/10 for its "unsafe ending" and Caroll's home state, New Jersey, scored an 11/10 for its potential to actually be a fun ride and, most importantly, for its "strong ending."
"I was pretty much just bragging with New Jersey," he said.
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The second video has been viewed nearly 100,000 times and has continued to impress Caroll's new fans.
"This is the only way I'd like to be consuming my statistics and graphs from now on," one viewer commented.
Caroll intends to keep his new fans entertained. He says he has a few more simulations in the works for coronavirus cases in South America and Europe.
After that, he may be designing more realistic coasters — he'll be attending the University of Pittsburgh in the fall where he plans to study civil engineering. Caroll says he grew up making trips to Six Flags and aspires to design roller coasters for a living. But for now, he's enjoying his viral fame.
"It's been really cool," he said. "I didn't think this was something people would care about seeing."
Read more:
COVID-19 deaths in America are flat even though cases are soaring. Here's what that could mean.