Round a rectangle — Direction Sense Aptitude Question
Round a rectangle: A person walks 20 m north, 30 m east, 20 m south and 30 m west. Answer and worked solution on CodeKairo.
- Topic: Direction Sense
- Section: Logical Reasoning
- Difficulty: Easy
- Time target: 45 seconds
Question
A person walks 20 m north, 30 m east, 20 m south and 30 m west. How far is he from the starting point?
Options
- 0 m
- 20 m
- 30 m
- 50 m
Show the answer and the worked solution
Correct answer: A. 0 m
Worked solution
- North 20 and south 20 cancel; east 30 and west 30 cancel.
- He is back where he started, so the distance is 0 m.
Answer: 0 m.
The idea
Opposite legs of equal length always cancel. Distance travelled (100 m) and displacement (0 m) are different questions.
Shortcut. Each leg is undone by an equal leg the opposite way (20 N with 20 S, 30 E with 30 W), so the displacement is zero.
Common trap. "50 m" — adding one north leg and one east leg (20 + 30), as if he had stopped halfway round.