Building Direction: Understanding Morning Sun and Shadow

This question asks us to determine the direction a building is facing based on the position of the morning sun and the shadow cast by a person. To solve this, we need to understand the relationship between the sun's position, the shadow's direction, and a person's orientation.

Sun Position in Morning

In the morning, the sun always rises in the East. This means that at any point in the morning, the sun will be in the East direction relative to an observer.

• Morning Sun Direction: East

Shadow Direction Analysis

A shadow is always cast in the direction opposite to the source of light. Since the sun is in the East in the morning, any object's shadow will fall towards the West.

• Morning Shadow Direction: West

Ms. X's Orientation and Shadow

The problem states that Ms. X finds her shadow falling to her right side. We just established that the morning shadow falls to the West.

• Ms. X's shadow falls to her right side.
• The morning shadow always falls towards the West.
• Therefore, Ms. X's right side must be the West direction.

Determining Ms. X's Facing Direction

If Ms. X's right side is West, we can deduce her facing direction:

• If her right hand points West, then her left hand must point East.
• Standing with right as West and left as East, her front (where she is facing) must be North.
• Consequently, her back must be South.

So, Ms. X is facing North, and her back is towards the South.

Building's Facing Direction

The question states that the building is to Ms. X's back. Since we determined that Ms. X's back is facing South, this means the building is located in the South direction relative to Ms. X.

If the building is to Ms. X's back (which is South), and she just came out of its front door, then the front door of the building must be facing the same direction as Ms. X's back when she exited. Therefore, the building is facing South.