Direction Sense: Basic Concept & Easy Tricks

The concept of Directions is an integral part of Logical Reasoning Section.

In these types of questions a successive follow-up of different directions is formulated and then a student is required to find out the final direction or the distance between two points.

Following figure shows the four main directions and four cardinal directions to help the students:

In the figure, N = North, NE = North-East, E = East, SE = South-East, S = South, SW = South-West, W = West and NW = North-West.

FINDING DIRECTIONS

Let us draw the path through the directions given in the below example:

Assume a person is going to the east of his home and then turns left after that turning to his right,

We can draw his path as;

Now understand this concept with the help of few examples:

Example 1:

Prakash, Ram, Mohan and Sanjay are playing a game of Carom. Prakash & Mohan and Sanjay & Ram are partners. Sanjay is to the right of Mohan who is facing west. Then Ram is facing which direction?

Explanation: This problem is based on Direction Sense.

STEP I: We can represent the four directions East, West, North, and South in the following manner:

STEP II:           

STEP III:          

Therefore, Ram is facing towards north.

Also learn the concept of Linear Arrangement

Example 2:

Ram facing south. He turns right and walks 40 metre. Then he turns right again and walks 20 metre. Then he turns left and walks 20 metre and then turning right walk 40 metre. Then he turns right again and walks 120 metre. In which direction he is from the starting point?

a) North-East

b) North-West

c) North

d) West

Explanation: 

Therefore, Ram is at North-East from the starting point.

So the answer is: a) North-East