A man goes 5 km East, then he turns right and goes 4 km, then he turns left and goes 5 km. Which direction is he facing now?
Answers
Answer:
It depends where he starts, because the Earth is not flat. If he starts from a point near the equator, as in fig 1, it is just a matter of trigonometry to calculate the direction from his starting point to the finishing point. But have a look at fig 2 and see what would happen if he started from a point 2km from the South Pole, what then?
The reality is that anyone going east is describing a circle around one of the poles but if the circle is very big and the distance travelled is small, the straight line diagram in fig 1 is a good enough approximation. However the larger the distances, or the nearer to the poles you get, the less accurate the approximation becomes.
Step-by-step explanation:
northeast is the direction in which he is facing