# Count the Fs **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 11, 2004, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-the-fs/264058 "2004-09-11T18:07:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-the-fs/264058/1 "2004-09-11T18:07:54Z")
From e-mail. Those that have encountered it before, no spoiling. > [@](#): > > COUNT every “F” in the following text: > > FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE > SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTI > FIC STUDY COMBINED WITH > THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS… > HOW MANY ? > > [spoiler] > 3? > > WRONG, THERE ARE 6 – no joke. > > READ IT AGAIN ! > > The brain cannot process “OF”. > > Incredible or what? Go back and look again!! > Anyone who counts all 6 “F’s” on the first go is a genius. > Three is normal, four is quite rare.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-the-fs/264058/2 "2004-09-11T18:46:42Z")
I’m a genius. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-the-fs/264058/3 "2004-09-11T19:14:11Z")
Ya got me…and I was so careful to count the F’s! ---
**Author:** ![Gadfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@Gadfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadfly)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-the-fs/264058/4 "2004-09-11T19:17:36Z")
Wow… That was… Not surprising at all. I got all six. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-the-fs/264058/5 "2004-09-11T20:40:33Z")
I got five. Apparently, I’m almost, but not quite, a genius. I knew that already. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-the-fs/264058/6 "2004-09-11T20:44:20Z")
I got 3. But isn’t it amazing how a relatively simple challenge can fool so many people? And it does, apparently. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-the-fs/264058/7 "2004-09-11T21:12:16Z")
Well, I counted 3, but I kept thinking it was too easy and that couldn’t possibly be right. So I was wrong about it being three, and right that it was too easy. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![emekthian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecae2f/32.png) [@emekthian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emekthian)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-the-fs/264058/8 "2004-09-11T21:56:42Z")
I counted 7. I have no idea how I did that. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-the-fs/264058/9 "2004-09-11T22:41:40Z")
I got 6. ---
**Author:** ![Merkwurdigliebe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-the-fs/264058/10 "2004-09-11T23:33:56Z")
I got six the first try and I am not a genius. So the test is flawed. No really, I thought it was common sense that there was going to be some trick, so I figured it out the second time I read the first line. But if you were to flash each line only once for a certain period of time I guess that might hold true. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-the-fs/264058/11 "2004-09-12T00:17:50Z")
200 views. Lets say about 75% of those are first time views. If you viewed the thread, took the test, and got 6 you are highly likely to post. If you took the test and got 3 you are quite likely to be amongst those 150 or so who didn’t post. So I’d say there’s a high proportion of poeple counting 3. Just saying. Also the Fs seem clearer in a vbulletin thread than they did in a messy e-mail full of '\>'s Has anyone seen the similar test where you’ve got to count how many times a group of people throw a ball at each other. Then someone plays tells you that a man in a gorilla suit walked right through the middle of the group. And then the footage is replayed. Most people didn’t spot the man in the gorilla suit. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-the-fs/264058/12 "2004-09-12T00:26:55Z")
That’s it? I counted the correct number of Fs the first time. Thinking there was some sort of trick, I counted again. And again. Six every time. So I CNTL-F’d the Fs and still counted six. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-the-fs/264058/13 "2004-09-12T00:33:00Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > That’s it? > > I counted the correct number of Fs the first time. Thinking there was some sort of trick, I counted again. And again. Six every time. So I CNTL-F’d the Fs and still counted six. bugger. I didn’t realize people could cheat. Apparently it works better in an e-mail. I counted 3. My intelligent step-father counted 3, my mother counted 3. And the thing it’self implies that most people count 3. But _after_ having already posted it here it’s apparent that it’s easier to count six in the clear, clutter free space of a vbulletin post. Either that or you really are all Geniuses. I am a lowly of-misser. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-the-fs/264058/14 "2004-09-12T00:45:43Z")
I’m pretty sure I see 27. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-the-fs/264058/15 "2004-09-12T00:49:26Z")
> [@](#): > > bugger. I didn’t realize people could cheat. I didn’t cheat. Just checked my results using a readily available tool after the fourth counting. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-the-fs/264058/16 "2004-09-12T00:50:23Z")
I thought there might be a trick too. I counted three times. 6, 6, 6. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-the-fs/264058/17 "2004-09-12T01:11:53Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > I didn’t cheat. Just checked my results using a readily available tool after the fourth counting. I know you didn’t cheat. You said you used ctrl-f _after_ you counted. You just reminded me of a _way_ of cheating. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-the-fs/264058/18 "2004-09-12T02:07:13Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I thought there might be a trick too. I counted three times. 6, 6, 6. The polymorphemic, psycholinguistic visual processing illusion of the _THE BEAST!!!_ ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-the-fs/264058/19 "2004-09-12T02:27:50Z")
Bah. I got more Fs than that every quarter on my report card. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-the-fs/264058/20 "2004-09-12T04:04:08Z")
You should have put O’s in front of them so your parents’ brains couldn’t process them. 6 for 6. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-the-fs/264058.md?page=2)