Amrita started walking straight after coming out of her office. She walked 5…

2025

Amrita started walking straight after coming out of her office. She walked 5 km and then turned right to view the setting sun. After enjoying this beautiful view, she turned right again and walked a distance of 8 km to reach her home. In which direction was Amrita facing when she came out of her office?

  1. A.

    East

  2. B.

    West

  3. C.

    North

  4. D.

    South

Attempted by 5 students.

Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: D

Concept: In direction-sense problems, treat directions as compass points. A right turn is a clockwise 90-degree rotation (North to East to South to West to North); a left turn is counter-clockwise. A fixed reference fact — here, that the setting sun always lies in the West — pins down the absolute direction at one point in the journey; from that anchor, the turn sequence lets you work out every other direction in the path.

Application:

  1. Amrita leaves her office and walks straight for 5 km in her initial, unknown direction; call this direction D1.

  2. She turns right and pauses to watch the sunset. Since the sun sets in the West, she is now facing West.

  3. A right turn maps South to West. Since her facing became West after this right turn, her direction just before the turn — that is, D1, the direction she walked out of the office in — must have been South.

  4. She turns right once more. A right turn from West maps to North. She walks 8 km North and reaches home.

Cross-check: Plot it on coordinates with the office at the origin. Walking 5 km South places her at (0, -5); turning right there to face West and walking 8 km places her at (-8, -5), meaning home lies south-west of the office — exactly matching the walk described and confirming South as her starting direction.

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