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A man walks 10m North, then 5m East, then 10m South. How far is he from the start?
5m
10m
15m
20m
5m
Visualize the path as a right-angled triangle where the vertical segments cancel out, leaving only the horizontal displacement.
Visualize the path as a right-angled triangle where the vertical segments cancel out, leaving only the horizontal displacement.
Establish Starting Point
Assume the starting position is at coordinates (0, 0) on a Cartesian plane.
Map Coordinates
Walk 10m North to reach (0, 10). Then, walk 5m East to reach (5, 10). Finally, walk 10m South, which subtracts 10 from the Y-coordinate, resulting in (5, 0).
Calculate Final Distance
The distance between the start (0, 0) and the end point (5, 0) is simply the difference in the X-coordinates, which is 5 - 0 = 5m.
B: 10m is incorrect as it ignores the cancellation of the vertical displacement; C: 15m incorrectly adds all distances walked; D: 20m is the total path length, not the displacement from the starting point.
A is correct because the 10m North and 10m South movements cancel each other out, leaving a net displacement equal only to the 5m Eastward travel.
In direction problems, always track North/South and East/West components separately. If North and South distances are equal, they will always cancel out.