Question

A person facing east walks east 20 paces, turns, walks north 10 paces, turns, walks west 25 paces, turns, walks south 10 paces, turns, walks east 15 paces, and then stops. What one transformation could have produced the same final result in terms of the position of the person and the direction the person faces?

Answer 1

10 paces East

Explanation:

East 20 and West 25 and East 15 = 10 East

10 north and 10 south cancel each other out

Answer 2

Walks east 10 paces

Explanation:

If we only consider the person's movement along the East-West axis, this movement was:

walks east 20 paces, walks west 25 paces and walks east 15 paces.

Taking east as positive and west as negative, this is equivalent to +20 -25 +15 = 10, or walks east 10 paces

Considering the person's movement along the North-South axis, this movement was:

walks north 10 paces and walks south 10 paces

which cancel out each other.