The following images are interpretations of descriptions of the American flag, provided by American participants who could only recall the flag from imagination.

All flags are interpreted as faithfully as possible, and all descriptions are exactly as written by respondents.

To picture the flag of the United States of America, let there be a rectangle with a width three times half of its height. Now let 12 lines be drawn horizontally across the rectangle so as to divide it into 13 equal rectangles. Counting from the top, let the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th rectangles be shaded crimson. Let the others be shaded white. Next, picture a blue rectangle laid on top of the original 13 rectangles. Let its top edge align with the top edge of the 1st rectangle. Let the bottom edge of the blue rectangle align with the bottom edge of the 5th rectangle. Let the left edge of the blue rectangle align with the left edge of the 13 rectangles. Let the blue rectangle’s width be equal to one third the width of the 13 rectangles. Finally let 50 5-pointed stars be evenly distributed across the area of the blue rectangle. The resulting collage of shapes will be universally recognized as the flag of the United States of America.

In the top left corner is a medium blue rectangle, smaller than the top-left quadrant of of the flag, with 50 white 5-pointed stars in it. The stars are in 5 rows of 10 staggered in a zigzag pattern offset by 1, and each is oriented such that they stand on two tips and have one tip pointing vertically. The rest of the flag is 13 horizontal bars in a striped red and white pattern. Each has the same height, dividing the flag into 13 even slices vertically. I believe there are 7 red and 6 white (so the red stripes are on the edges). The stripes at the level of the rectangle do not overlap the starry rectangle, instead stopping at its edges. this may be wrong, but i believe also that the starred section of the flag is 6 stripes tall, having a full-width red stripe beneath it.

The American Flag description The American flag is rectangular in shape and its design includes red white & blue stars & stripes representing our original colonies & current 50 states. The red is fire engine red. The blue is medium navy blue. The white bright white. The colors represent valor, strength & purity (or something like that.) The layout of the flag includes 13 red and white alternating horizontal stripes beginning at the top with red & ending with red. A blue rectangular box approximately 1/4th the size of the flag is placed in the upper left corner and filled with 50 small white 5-pointed stars in alternating rows.

okay. so the flag shape is a rectangle with the width being greater than the height (so longer horizontally). then, on the top right hand corner there is a square that’s side length is about 1/4 to 1/3 the height. The square is a solid dark blue. In the square there are 50 solid 5 point stars that are placed in a checkerboard manner (is that even true???). The rest of the flag is composed of red and white stripes. i have no idea how many so i’m gonna guess around 13 red stripes and 13 white stripes. they alternate and the first stripe at the top is red (???). the blue square overlaps the stripe btw.

The top left quadrant of the flag is white stars on a field of blue. There are 50 stars representing the 50 states. The stars are arranged in alternating rows of 6 and 5. There are 6 stars in the first row and there are nine rows total. The stars are arranged such that they evenly fill the blue field and are equidistant from each other. The rest of the flag is filled with horizontal stripes of equal height. There are 13 stripes representing the 13 original colonies. The stripes alternate red and white from top to bottom. The top stripe is red, the next white, and so on.

so it’s like a normal size for a normal flag. the top left quadrant has a dark blue background. there’s space for like 100 stars but every other space is empty, so there’s only 50. it’s kind of like a 5x6 field of stars overlaid with a 4x5 field of stars. the top right quadrant has six stripes, alternating red and white, starting with red at the top. the bottom half is seven more stripes, starting red and alternating red and white. that’s it, that’s our flag

The flag is made of a large, white rectangle. There is a blue rectangle on the top-left corner of the flag, about 1/4 of the size of flag. There are 50 white stars inside this blue rectangle, each star representing one of the 50 states in the United States. Outside of the blue rectangle are 13 long red, horizontal stripes. These 13 stripes represent the original 13 British Colonies before the country was known as the United States.

There is a small, blue rectangle at the top left, less than a quarter of the total flag area. This rectangle contains fifty stars, arranged in two grid patterns. One is six by 5, and the other is five by four. The smaller one is offset and positioned within the larger grid. Outside of the blue rectangle there are thirteen horizontal stripes of equal vertical height, starting with red at the top and alternating red-white.

The American flag is a rectangle. There is a square of blue in the top left-hand corner, which extends from the top down about 1/3 of the way to the bottom and about 1/4 the way to the right. Within the blue portion, there are 50 white stars, arranged in 5 rows of 6 and 4 rows of 5, alternating. Going horizontally from the to down, there are 13 stripes of alternating red and white, beginning and ending with red.

Imagine a rectangle with a smaller rectangle at the upper left. The upper rectangle is beep blue with 50 white stars arranged in rows from top to bottom of that shape. Now imagine the remaining rectangle outside of the deep blue and white stars rectangle, consisting of 13 red and white stripe from top to bottom.