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Question

A man starts from a point A and walks 30 meters towards south. from there he turns left and walks 40 meters. Again he turns left and walks 30 metres and reaches a point B. How far and in which direction is the man now from the point A?

This question was previously asked in
UGC NET 2023 Electronic Science Question Paper (13-Dec-2023) (Shift 1)
The correct answer is

20 meters west

Note on this question: there is a mismatch between the English and Hindi versions of this question as officially set by UGC. The English text given here describes only THREE legs of the walk (South 30 m, left turn + 40 m, left turn + 30 m, ending at point B). However, the Hindi version of the same question includes a FOURTH leg that is missing from the English text: after reaching point B, the man turns left again and walks 60 metres further. Because the two language versions describe different journeys, UGC officially dropped this question. For learning purposes, here is how the given answer is derived using the complete, 4-leg version of the journey (matching the Hindi text):
Step 1: The man starts at point A facing South and walks 30 m South.
Step 2: He turns left. If you are facing South, a left turn makes you face East. He walks 40 m East.
Step 3: He turns left again. Facing East, a left turn makes you face North. He walks 30 m North. This is point B.
Step 4: (this leg is present only in the Hindi version) He turns left again. Facing North, a left turn makes you face West. He walks 60 m West.
Step 5: Now calculate the net displacement.
Net North-South displacement = 30 m South − 30 m North = 0 (the southward and northward walks cancel out).
Net East-West displacement = 40 m East − 60 m West = 20 m West (since 60 m West is more than 40 m East, the net direction is West).
So the man ends up exactly 20 metres to the West of point A, which matches the given answer 20 meters West. (Note: if only the 3-leg English version is used, the final position would be 40 m East of A, which does not match any option — this confirms the English text is incomplete and the question was correctly dropped by UGC.)

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Similar Questions

  1. A lady while going to her college in a car drove 20 kms towards north and then 15 kms towards west. She then turned to the south and covered 10 kms. Further she turned to the east and moved 12 kms. Finally she turned right and drove 10 kms. How far and in which direction is the lady from her starting point ?

  2. A person walks 30 meters North, then turns right and walks 30 meters. He then turns right and walks 45 meters. Then he turns left and walks 15 meters. Again he turns left and walks 15 meters. In which direction and how far is the person from his starting point ?
  3. One day Prakash left home and walked 10 km towards south, turned right and walked 5 km, turned right and walked 10 km and turned left and walked 10 km. How many km will he have to walk to reach his home straight?

  4. A postman walked 20 m straight from his office, turned right and walked 10 m. After turning left he walked 10 m and after turning right walked 20 m. He again turned right and walked 70 m. How far he is from his office?

  5. A man started walking from his house towards south. After walking 6 km, he turned to his left and walked 5 km. Then he walked further 3 km after turning left. He then turned to his left and continued his walk for 9 km. How far is he away from his house?

  6. Anil after travelling 6 km towards East from his house realized that he has travelled in a wrong direction. He turned and travelled 12 km towards West, turned right and travelled 8 km to reach his office. The straight distance of the office from his house is:

  7. A person walks 10 m infront and 10 m to the right. Then every time turning to his left, he walks 5, 15 and 15 m respectively. How far is he now from his starting point ?


Important Questions from Direction and Distance

  1. Johny starts from Point A and drives 6 km towards the North. He then takes a right turn, drives 17 km, turns right and drives 13 km. He then takes a right turn and drives 8 km. He takes a final right turn, drives 7 km and stops at Point P. How far (shortest distance) and towards which direction should he drive to reach Point A again? (All turns are 90 degrees turns only unless specified.)
  2. Town Q is to the east of Town P. Town R is to the south of Town Q. Town S is to the east of Town R. Town T is to the south of Town S. Town U is to the east of Town T. What is the position of Town U with respect to Town Q?
  3. Binoy starts from Point Y and drives 16 km towards the north. He then takes a right turn and drives 43 km, then turns right and drives 38 km. He then takes a right turn and drives 19 km. He takes a final right turn, drives 22 km and stops at Point Z. How far (shortest distance) and in which direction should he drive in order to reach Point Y again? (All turns are 90-degree turns only unless specified.)
  4. Himank starts from Point A and drives 13 km towards West. He then takes a left turn, drives 3 km, turns left and drives 16 km. He then takes a left turn and drives 6 km. He takes a final left turn, drives 3 km and stops at Point P. How far (shortest distance) and towards which direction should he drive in order to reach Point A again? (All turns are 90° turns only unless specified.)
  5. Shyam starts from Point A and drives 12 km towards east. He then takes a right turn,
    drives 7 km, turns right and drives 5 km. He then takes a left turn and drives 9 km. He
    takes a final right turn, drives 7 km and stops at Point P. How far (shortest distance) and
    towards which direction should he drive in order to reach Point A again? (All turns are
    $90^{\circ}$ turns only unless specified.)
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