X started to walk straight towards South. After walking 5 m, he turned to the…
2025
X started to walk straight towards South. After walking 5 m, he turned to the left and walked 3 m. After this, he turned to the right and walked 5 m. Now, in which direction is X facing?
- A.
North-East
- B.
South
- C.
North
- D.
South-West
Attempted by 2 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Concept: In a direction-and-distance problem, the direction a person ends up FACING depends only on the sequence of turns, never on the distances walked. A LEFT turn rotates the current facing 90° anticlockwise, and a RIGHT turn rotates it 90° clockwise, cycling through the four cardinal points (North, East, South, West) in that fixed order.
Working:
X starts facing South and walks 5 m; the facing is still South.
X turns LEFT: rotating 90° anticlockwise from South gives East, so X now faces East and walks 3 m in that direction.
X turns RIGHT: rotating 90° clockwise from East gives South, so X now faces South again and walks the final 5 m.
Cross-check: A left turn and a right turn are equal-and-opposite 90° rotations, so one left followed by one right always cancels to a net rotation of 0° - confirming, independent of the step-by-step trace, that X must end up facing the exact same direction as at the very start of the walk.
Answer: X is facing South.