Priyanka starts walking towards the south. She takes a left turn and walks a…

2026

Priyanka starts walking towards the south. She takes a left turn and walks a certain distance, then takes a right turn and walks a certain distance, and finally takes a left turn and stops. In which direction is Priyanka now located with respect to her starting point?

  1. A.

    North-East

  2. B.

    North-West

  3. C.

    South-East

  4. D.

    South-West

Attempted by 1922 students.

Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: C

Concept: In a direction-sense problem, track the walker's facing direction after every turn using the standard compass turn rule — a left turn rotates the heading 90° counter-clockwise and a right turn rotates it 90° clockwise — then add up the net displacement along each straight leg that actually carries a walking distance. A turn that is immediately followed by a stop contributes no displacement. The final position relative to the start is found by combining the net east-west and north-south displacement.

Application: Trace each turn in order, starting from her given facing direction:

  1. She starts facing south, as given in the question.

  2. First turn — left, taken while facing south: her heading rotates to face east, and she walks the first distance heading east.

  3. Second turn — right, taken while now facing east: her heading rotates to face south, and she walks the second distance heading south.

  4. Third turn — left, taken while facing south: her heading rotates to face east again, but she stops immediately after this turn, so this leg carries no walking distance.

  5. Only the first two legs — east, then south — contribute to her net displacement from the starting point.

Cross-check: Place the starting point at the origin, with east as the positive x-direction and north as the positive y-direction. After the first leg she is at (+e, 0); after the second leg she is at (+e, −s), where e and s are the two (unspecified but positive) walking distances. A point with a positive x-coordinate and a negative y-coordinate lies to the south-east of the origin, confirming the result independently.

Result: South-East.

Note: This question asks for Priyanka's position relative to her starting point, not her final facing direction — after the third turn she is actually facing east, which is why the answer among the given options is a diagonal direction (South-East) rather than a plain cardinal one.

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