In a particular faulty compass, the west direction in the real world is shown as south on the compass dial. According to this faulty compass, which indicated direction should a man follow if he actually wishes to move towards the true east direction?

Introduction / Context:
Reasoning questions involving faulty instruments, such as a misaligned compass, test a candidate's ability to reason about relative directions. Here the compass does not show the correct directions. We are told how it behaves for one known real direction, and we must deduce what reading on the faulty compass corresponds to another real direction. This is essentially a problem about rotation and mapping between actual directions and indicated directions on the misaligned dial.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• In reality, there are four main directions: north, east, south and west.
• On the faulty compass, when a person actually faces west in the real world, the compass shows south.
• The misalignment is consistent for all directions (the compass card is rotated by a fixed angle).
• We have to find which direction the compass should indicate if the person wants to move towards the actual east direction.

Concept / Approach:
If a compass card is rotated, every real direction is shifted by the same amount on the dial. The statement that real west appears as south tells us that the dial has been rotated relative to the real world. We represent the real directions and the indicated directions as points on a circle, then determine the mapping. Once the mapping from real directions to compass readings is known, we apply the same shift to find which compass reading corresponds to real east.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: In the real world, the directions are arranged clockwise as North, East, South, West. Step 2: We are told that when a person stands facing real west, the compass indicates south. This means that the marking "south" on the compass dial physically points towards real west. Step 3: Therefore the whole dial appears to be rotated anticlockwise by 90 degrees relative to the real directions. Under this rotation, real west aligns with compass south. Step 4: Let us now compute how other real directions map. If the dial is rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise, then real north aligns with compass west, real east aligns with compass north, real south aligns with compass east and real west aligns with compass south. Step 5: The question asks: if the man wishes to move towards the real east direction, which compass indication should he follow? Step 6: From the mapping above, real east corresponds to compass north. So he should move in the direction that the faulty compass labels as north.

Verification / Alternative check:
We can verify by drawing a simple circle with the real directions marked, then physically rotating the compass labels anticlockwise by one quadrant. Place N, E, S, W on a circle. Now rotate the dial anticlockwise so that the label S moves to the position of W. After rotation, label N shifts to the position of E, label E to the position of S and label W to the position of N. Therefore when the compass shows north, the person is actually facing east in the real world. This matches our earlier reasoning.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:

• Option B, South, corresponds to real west, which is given in the question as the faulty indication.
• Option C, East, would correspond to real south under the anticlockwise rotation and so is incorrect for reaching real east.
• Option D, West, matches real north under the same mapping and therefore does not satisfy the requirement.
• Option E, North-East, is not involved in the simple quarter turn rotation described and is not supported by the mapping information.

Common Pitfalls:
Many learners mistakenly assume that the compass is rotated clockwise or that each direction simply shifts by arbitrary amounts. It is crucial to remember that all directions move together as a rigid rotation. Forgetting to apply the same shift to each direction leads to incorrect answers. Drawing a diagram with arrows for real and indicated directions is often the quickest and most reliable method for such problems.

Final Answer:
To move towards the real east direction, the man should follow the direction that the faulty compass shows as North.