Direction – “A path along which someone or something moves.”

In the topic, all the questions are based on four main directions (i.e. East, West, North and South) and four cardinal directions (i.e. North-East, North-West, South-East and South-West).
Based on given scenario we have to find out either direction or distance from given place.

Main Points of this Job

## Importance of topic

Direction and Distance type questions check one’s sense of directions and ability to visualize.

This type of questions are asked in IBPS PO, IBPS Clerk, CMAT, GMAT, CAT, SSC CGL, Clerical, CET, etc.

## Pre-Requisites

Direction sense – There are four main directions East, West, North and South. We will denote it as E, W, N and S respectively.
There are four Cardinal Directions that exist between four main directions namely North-East, North-West, South-East and South-West. We will represent them as NE, NW, SE and SW.

Angle – Now one thing we have to remember is that angle between two main directions is always 90° and angle between main direction and its adjacent cardinal direction is always 45°.

Selection of right or left direction depends on whether it is clockwise (Right turn) or anti-clockwise (Left turn).

Example: A boy is facing towards west and turns 45° clockwise.
So in this case Boy will turn on his right side 45°.
If it was 45° ANTI-CLOCKWISE then Boy will turn on his left 45°.

Pythagoras Theorem
In Pythagoras Theorem, relation between three sides of the right angle triangle is defined.
This theorem is helpful in measuring distance between given points.

(Hypotenuse)2 = (Perpendicular)2 + (Base)2

(AC)2 = (AB)2 + (BC)2

## Key Points

1) There would be no Shadow at 12Noon.

2) After sun rise till 12PM, shadow would be towards west.

3) After 12PM and before sun set, shadow would be towards east.

4) If a person faces towards North before 12pm, his/her shadow would be towards his/her left side and after 12pm it would be towards his/her right side.

5) If a person faces towards South before 12pm, his/her shadow would be towards his/her right side and after 12pm it would be towards his/her left side.

6) Right and Left turn always make 90° angle.

## Question Types

1) Direction based Questions

In these types of questions, student is asked to find out direction from one point to another. This point can be starting position, current position or any other place.

Examples

A) Joe is walking towards North for 15 miles, turns left and walks another 10 miles. He then turns right and walks 10 miles. Now, he again turns right and walks 30 miles. Which direction is he from Starting point?

a) South-East
b) North-East
c) North-West
d) South-West
e) None of these

Diagram:

B) Morris is facing North and walks 10kms. He turns 270° anti-clockwise and walks 15kms. Now, he again turns 45° clockwise and walks for 25kms. Which direction is he facing now?

a) North-West
b) South-West
c) North-East
d) South-East
e) None of these

Diagram:

C) Joe is facing towards South and turns 45° anti-clockwise. He turns again 180° in anti-clockwise direction. Now, he turns 270° clockwise. Which direction is he facing?

a) West
b) East
c) South-West
d) North-East

Diagram:

D) Mary is walking towards South-West for 15 miles, turns right and walks another 10 miles. She then turns 90° Clockwise and walks 10 miles. Now, she again turns left and walks 30 miles. Which direction is she facing?

a) East
b) West
c) South-East
d) North-West
e) Can’t determined

Diagram:

2) Distance based Questions

In these types of questions, student is asked to find out distance from one point to another. This point can be starting position, current position or any other place.
This question will require Pythagoras theorem in some cases, while in some cases we can easily find out distance between two points by simply drawing diagrams.

Examples

A) Joe went 35 meters towards east from Mary’s house. He turns left and walks 15 meters. Now, he takes a left turn and walks 80 meters. Finally, he turns left and walks for 15 meters. How far Joe is from Mary’s house?

a) 30
b) 45
c) 50
d) 65

Diagram:

B) Maria walked 30 m towards north. She turned right and walked 40 m. She then turned right and walked 45 m. She turned left and walked 25 m. Finally she turned left and walked 15 m. How far is she from the starting position?

a) 55
b) 65
c) 30
d) 45

Diagram:

C) Harry walks 25 meters towards North from his friend’s house. Then he turns left and walks 32 meters. He again turns left and walks 25 meters. Further, he moves 25 meters after turning to his right. How far is he from his friend’s house?

a) 50
b) 7
c) 57
d) 0
e) Can’t determined

Diagram:

D) A Boy walks 12kms towards east. He turns 90° clockwise and walks 20kms then he turned right and walked for 33kms. How far is he from starting point?

a) 65
b) 29
c) 21
d) 43

Diagram:

3) Direction-Distance based Questions

In this type of questions, we deal with the final distance and directions between two points; it can be places, persons, things, etc.

Examples

A) A car travels 25 kms towards south from garage. It turns left and travels 30 kms, then turns right and travels 15 kms. how far is car from the garage and in which direction?

a) 40 North-East
b) 70 South-East
c) 60 North-East
d) 50 South-East

Diagram:

B) Jerry starts walking towards South from his house. After travelling 10 meters, he turns left and walks 6 meters. He turns left and walks 26 meters and then he turns right and walks 4 meters. Finally, he turns right and walks for 16 meters. How far is he from his house and in which direction?

a) 10 East
b) 20 West
c) 16 East
d) 26 West

Diagram:

C) Joseph walks 20 meters from his house and after that he turns 90° clockwise and walks 10 kms. He turns right and walks for 20 kms, then he turns left and walks for 6 kms. Finally, he is going towards North. How far Joseph is from his house and in which direction?

a) 40 South
b) 20 South
c) 16 North
d) 15 North

Diagram:

D) Martin walked 13 meters towards South from his Gym. He turned left and walked 10 meters. He took a left turn and walked 5 meters and then he turned right and walked for 5 meters. How far is he from his Gym and in which direction?

a) 19 North-West
b) 13 South-East
c) 15 North-West
d) 17 South-East

Diagram:

Exercise:

A) One morning after sunrise, Joe was standing facing a pole. The shadow of the pole fell exactly to his right. To which direction was he facing?

a) East
b) South
c) West

View solution

B) James and Henry were standing facing each other at 8AM. Shadow of the Henry fell exactly to his right. To which direction was James facing?

a) East
b) South
c) North

View solution

C) Ted drives a car 10 miles towards North from his office. He turns 270° clockwise and drives for 20 miles. Now, he turns 270° anti-clockwise and drives a car for 37 miles. Finally, he reaches his house after driving for 20 miles to his right. How far is Ted’s house from his Office and in which direction?

a) 40 South
b) 47 North
c) 30 East
d) 37 West

View solution

Correct Option: (b)

D) John starting from his house, goes 21 miles west, then he turns 90° clockwise and goes 20 miles. What minimum distance should be covered by him to come back to his house?

a) 41
b) 21
c) 29
d) 59

View solution

Correct Option: (c)

E) Prince was standing facing to the Pole at 1:48PM. Shadow of the Pole fell towards his right. To which direction was Prince facing?

a) West
b) South
c) East
d) North

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