Choose the correct option: Nancy is standing at point A facing North. She…

2024

Choose the correct option: Nancy is standing at point A facing North. She walks 50 meters to her right and takes a left turn and walks another 40 meters, then she walks 30 meters to her left again and then 20 meters to her right. In which direction is she standing from her starting point?

  1. A.

    North-East

  2. B.

    North-West

  3. C.

    North

  4. D.

    South-West

Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: A

Concept: In a direction-sense problem, plot the walk on a compass grid with North as one axis and East as the other. Every 'left' or 'right' instruction is a 90° rotation of the CURRENT facing direction (right = clockwise, left = counter-clockwise), and each distance is a displacement along the NEW facing. The final direction from the start is read off the signs of the net East-West and net North-South displacement, not from any single leg.

Applying this to Nancy's path:

  1. Start at A, facing North; take A as the origin, with North as the positive vertical axis and East as the positive horizontal axis.

  2. She walks 50 m 'to her right': facing North, a right turn faces East, so she moves 50 m East — now at (East 50, North 0), facing East.

  3. She 'takes a left turn' and walks 40 m: from East, a left turn faces North, so she moves 40 m North — now at (East 50, North 40), facing North.

  4. She walks 30 m 'to her left': from North, a left turn faces West, so she moves 30 m West — now at (East 20, North 40), facing West.

  5. She walks 20 m 'to her right': from West, a right turn faces North, so she moves 20 m North — now at (East 20, North 60), facing North.

Cross-check: undoing these five legs in reverse order (20 m South, 30 m East, 40 m South, 50 m West) returns exactly to the origin, confirming the trace. The net displacement from A is 20 m East and 60 m North — both components positive — so the finishing point lies in the North-East quadrant relative to A.

Nancy is standing to the North-East of her starting point.

Explore the full course: Iisc Administrative Assistant 2026