CAT stands for common aptitude test. CAT Direction sense is important and useful in logical section. This topic is an integral part of many competitive exams. An aspirants could except few questions from this topic. As Logical reasoning section contain a total of 20 questions and out of that few questions are from Direction sense . A Logical Reasoning & Data Interpretation contains 30% weightage in CAT exams.

Also read: CAT Preparation in 5 months : Toppers Strategy

Direction sense – Basic Concept

The direction questions are one of the most repeated questions in the CAT Exam. Apart from CAT, direction and distance reasoning questions are also frequently asked in most of the MBA exams and other competitive exams. The test-takers are suggested to attempt these questions effectively as they are scoring and easily-solvable.

The direction and distance reasoning questions, as the name implies, includes two types of questions i.e.:

1. Direction Sense Test
2. Distance Related questions

Direction Sense Reasoning

The questions based on directions require the candidates to identify the direction of an individual or shadow from a set of statements. Some important points are given which can help to understand and solve the related question easily.

General Directions:

In general, there are four main directions i.e. North, South, East and West. Apart from these four, there are four additional directions derived from the main ones. They are called North-East, North-West, South-East and South-West. A chart is given below for reference.

Direction Chart:

Casting of Shadows:

A lot of times questions in CAT are asked regarding casting of shadows. It is important and useful to know the below concepts to understand

1. If a man faces a rising sun, his shadow will always be in the west.
2. If a man faces north, his shadow will be on his right during sunrise and on his left during sunset.
3. Similarly, if a man faces south, his shadow will be on his left during sunrise and on his right during sunset.
4. In mid-noon, no shadows are seen as the sun’s rays are vertically downwards.

Left Right Movement

• A person facing north, on taking left will face towards west and on taking the right turn towards east.

• A person facing west, on taking left will face towards south and on taking right turn towards north.
• A person facing east, on taking left will face towards north and on taking the right turn towards south.
• A person facing south, on taking left will face towards east and on taking the right turn towards west.

• Whenever a person moves to his left side, he will move towards anti- clockwise direction.
• Whenever a person moves to his right side, he will move towards clockwise direction.

Distance Related Questions - Concept of Pythagoras Theorem

While solving the distance related question, one must be thorough with the Pythagorean Theorem to be able to solve most of the questions. The Pythagorean Theorem is used to calculate the shortest path travel, the minimum distance between two points, etc. A couple of examples and cat questions are given below to illustrate the direction and distance questions better.

Video’s that could help aspirant.

Some Examples of Direction Sense.

For Example 1:

Airplanes A, B, C and D started flight towards east. After flying 125 km planes A and D flew towards right while planes B and C flew towards left. After 115 km, planes B and C flew towards their left while planes A and D also turned towards their left. In which directions are the airplanes A, B, D, C respectively flying now?

1. North, South, East, West
2. East, West, West, East
3. East, West, East, West
4. South, North, North, South

Solution: Let us look at A and D first. After flying for 125 km, A and D would still be in east direction. Now , they take a right turn which makes their direction as south. From south, if you take a left, you will again come in the east direction. So planes A and D are in east direction.

Now, let us look at planes B and C. After flying for 125 km, B and C would still be in east direction. From east direction, they take a left turn which means now they are in north. From north, they again take a left which makes them land in the west. So correct answer would be: East, west, East, West (Option C)

For Example 2:

Ram starts from his house and walks 2 km east up to his class and turns southwards and walks 1 km up to his friend’s house. At the friend’s house, he turns to east and walks 2 km up to his school. He then turns northwards and walks 4 km to the garden. How far is he from his house?

1. 5 km
2. 7 km
3. 4 km
4. 2.5 km

Solution:

To determine how far Ram is from his house, we can visualize his movements on a coordinate grid.

Let's assume Ram's house is at the origin (0, 0). Ram walks 2 km east, so he reaches the point (2, 0). He then turns southwards and walks 1 km, ending up at (2, -1). Next, he turns east again and walks 2 km, reaching (4, -1). Finally, he turns northwards and walks 4 km, which takes him to (4, 3), the garden.

To calculate the distance between the garden and his house, we can use the distance formula, which is the square root of the sum of the squared differences in coordinates:

Distance = sqrt((x2 - x1)^2 + (y2 - y1)^2)

In this case, the coordinates of the garden (x2, y2) are (4, 3), and the coordinates of his house (x1, y1) are (0, 0).

Distance = sqrt((4 - 0)^2 + (3 - 0)^2)
Distance = sqrt(16 + 9)
Distance = sqrt(25)
Distance = 5

Therefore, Ram is 5 km away from his house.

Example 3:

One evening Amit and Gaurav were talking to each other face to face at a crossing. If Gaurav’s shadow was exactly to the left of Amit, which direction was Amit facing?

Solution: Since Gaurav and Amit are standing face to face, if Gaurav’s shadow is to the left of Amit, it would be to the right of Gaurav. Now remember point about shadows above:

• If a man faces north, his shadow will be on his right during sunrise and on his left during sunset.
• Similarly, if a man faces south, his shadow will be on his left during sunrise and on his right during sunset.

We know from the question that it is sunset and shadow is to the right of Gaurav. So after Using point 2 above, Gaurav is facing south. Hence, Amit is facing north.

Practice questions of Direction Sense

Question1 : A is standing on the east of B who is standing in the north of C. In which direction is D with respect to A if D is standing in the south of C?

Question2: Mr. X and Mr. Y are facing each other and are enjoying the sunrise. If Mr. X’s shadow falls on his left side, then which direction is Mr. Y facing?

Question3: Mr. A moves North and then turns to his right and keep walking. After that, he again turns right and walks a certain distance and then finally walks to the left. In which direction is he walking now?

Question4: Mr. P walked 3 km towards the east. After that, he moved clockwise and walked 4 Km. What would have been the distance if he took the shortest path from his initial position to his final position?

Question5: Mr. M walked 20m towards the west and turned left and again walked 15m. Then he moved anti-clockwise and walked 20m. At last, he moved clockwise and walked another 10m. How far is Mr. M now from his initial position?

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