Question

A man walked 3km north and 8km towards South. His position at the end of the walk is:
(a)5km towards east
(b)3km towards south
(c)8km towards north
(d)5km towards south

Answer 1

Hint: We will draw the figure to get the clear picture that where the man will be, and then we will mark the point A from where he starts and then he goes to north direction and from there towards south direction and reaches at point C. Hence, from that we will find the magnitude and direction of AC.

Complete step-by-step answer:
Let’s first look at the figure,

In the figure we have marked the directions of East, West, North and South.
The man start from point A.
We can see from the above figure that first the man goes 3km from A to B in north direction.
And then the man goes 8 km from B to C in south direction.
Hence, the final destination of the man is at point C.
Therefore, he has travelled from A to C, and the distance between A and C is 5km.
Finally we can say that he has travelled 5km towards south.

Note: Students can make the mistake of not considering distance from point A and getting 8km towards south. As the man is only moving in the north and south direction so option (a) can’t be possible. In such a type of question we just have to subtract the two values and the direction will be on that side which has greater magnitude.