Prior to crafting this list, I didn’t know much about a majority of these cities. But as someone who thinks we could all use more knowledge about our great fifty states, I thought it would be valuable to put together a list of the top 5 US state capitals by lexicographical order.
Criteria I took into consideration when making this list:
- The spelling of lexicographic
- This was instrumental in properly writing my title
- APFTwL, or Average Positioning of First Two Letters
- Example: Cat has an APFTL of 2, because “c” is the third (3) letter of the alphabet and “a” is the first (1) letter of the alphabet. (3+1)/2 = 2 so the average position is 2
- Like in golf, a lesser APFTL score would be stronger. Unlike golf, I am proficient at calculating APFTL.
- APFThL
- You can figure out what this stands for
1. Albany
Coming in at #1, it’s no surprise we have Albany. With a first letter of “A” and an APFTwL of 6.5, it would be hard for any future state capitals of America to take the throne from Albany. Obscured in popular culture by the prevailing myth that NYC is the capital of New York, Albany has struggled to make a name for itself in the modern era.
Many people don’t realize that Albany was once a major center of trade, housing one end of the Erie Canal and home to some of the first railroads in the nation. In recent years, Albany has made a resurgence of sorts, breaking into the high-technology industry and supporting many companies developing nanotechnology (like the stuff Iron Man uses).
2. Annapolis
Annapolis comes in second place, right on Albany’s tail with an APFTwL of 7.5. Like Albany, Annapolis often suffers from “Little Brother Capital Syndrome”, as many think that the capital of Maryland in Baltimore.
I’m sure Annapolis is an incredibly intriguing city, however a quick search of the city did not pique my interest, so I stopped researching it. If you want to learn more about the city and all it has to offer, here is the number of their tourist visitor center: 410-280-0445.
3. Atlanta
At #3 on the list, we have our first relevant city: Atlanta, GA. Home to the Coca-Cola factory, colleges like Georgia Tech and Emory, and the world’s busiest airport, Atlanta has lots to offer. Some spots I’d recommend checking out are Midtown, the MLK National Historical Park, and Peachtree street.
Other fun facts about Atlanta include:
It was host of the 1996 Summer Olympics, and also America’s most recent host of the Summer Olympics
It is home to many influential hip-hop artists, such as Outkast, 21 Savage, Gucci Mane, Migos, and Lil Baby.
4. Augusta
Woah. The distinction between #4 and #5 on this list came down to the slimmest of margins. With an APFThL of 9.67, Augusta narrowly beat out Austin for the fourth spot. Augusta is the capital of Maine and is perhaps not even the most popular Augusta in America.
The Masters Tournament is held in Augusta each year, drawing in millions of dollars in revenue for the city from golf fanatics. Unfortunately for Maine, the Masters are held in Augusta, Georgia.
Augusta, Maine does have its own interesting attributes, such as being the third least populous state capital in the US and being home to John L. Stevens, who was accused of trying to overthrow the Queen of Hawaii back in the 1890s.
5. Austin
Last but not least we have Austin, possibly the fastest growing tech hub in America. Companies like Tesla, Google, and Facebook have expanded to Austin, while Oracle relocated its headquarters from the Bay Area to Austin. Elon Musk even moved there recently, citing it as a future major city of America.
Austin is also home to the University of Texas at Austin, which has notable alumni such as Matthew McConaughey and Vince Young.
Aadi,
First of all, just the idea of lexagrophy is really cool (no idea how to spell it lmao). Secondly, I think the idea of combining an interest with a learning opportunity is an awesome way to not only strengthen your interest and the skills that go with it, but also as implied, learn a lot about something you don’t know!
I think Albany highlights as times change, you gotta change with it. Silicon Valley is what it is because of Apple and all the other startups that can find a home their. Texas is becoming an up and coming state with once again, the opportunity for new and enticing jobs and research.
I like how you put all this effort into all the other cities and then when you got to Austin you gave them one sentence lmao.
Alex
As someone who was only introduced to lexicography this year through AP CS, this blog was very fascinating to read – thanks for sharing Adi! I really enjoyed how you built off of this more mathematical/computer science-y framework to make an interdisciplinary analysis of each city. Other than the fact that it is the capital of New York, I’d actually never known that it had such obscured facets to it, like nanotechnology, or that it was a former center of trade.
For Annapolis, I really did subscribe to the “Little Brother Capital Syndrome” – I thought Baltimore was the capital of Maryland 🙂
I’ve never been to Atlanta before, and I have to say, the picture looks amazing and if I ever visit, I’ll definitely make sure to check out those places you recommended – they sound like great places to visit!
Overall, thanks for sharing!
Hello, Adi! Great blog, I’d really love to visit some of these state capitals. I think they’re often overshadowed by the other, big cities in their states (like Albany and NYC, Springfield and Chicago) and that we often forget the wonderful sites they have as well. It’s interesting how you ranked them by lexicography; next time, I think you should try that to the top cities in America, or Illinois. Have you been to any of the cities you listed? I’d love to travel to them, and hopefully I’ll get the chance in the future. Enjoy your weekend!
Hello Adi,
Thank you for including very relevant facts about each capital in this blog. I am blessed to know that Atlanta was the host of the 1996 Summer Olympics and that Vince Young went to University of Texas at Austin. I’m sure someone will need Annapolis’ tourist center phone number soon. Thanks for sharing! This is so useful.