Spatial Skills and Visualization Flashcards

A cube has each face painted a different color: top=red, bottom=blue, front=green, back=yellow, left=white, right=orange. If the cube is tipped forward (front face becomes the bottom), what color is now on top?

Answer: Yellow

Tipping forward moves the back face to the top, so yellow is now on top.

A patrol officer must cover a neighborhood grid. Starting at the southwest corner and moving in a snake pattern (east, north one block, west, north one block, east…), after 4 passes, which corner of the grid is the officer at?

Answer: Northeast

Pass 1 ends east, pass 2 shifts north, pass 3 ends west, pass 4 shifts north again ending at the northeast corner.

Two officers approach an intersection from opposite directions — one from the north, one from the south. Each faces the other. The officer coming from the north sees a blue car to her left. Where is the blue car relative to the officer approaching from the south?

Answer: To his right

When two people face each other, their left and right sides are mirror images, so what is to one person's left is to the other's right.

A witness describes a building layout: 'The lobby is in front, offices are behind the lobby, and the emergency exit is on the left side when you face the building.' An officer approaches from the rear. Where is the emergency exit relative to the officer?

Answer: On the officer's right

The exit is on the west side of the building; approaching from the rear (north), west is on the officer's right.

A 2D shape has 4 equal sides and 4 right angles. If this shape is extruded equally in the third dimension, what 3D solid does it become?

Answer: Cube

Extruding a square equally in all three dimensions produces a cube, where all edges are equal.

On a tactical map, an officer marks three checkpoints: A is 2 km north of the command post, B is 3 km east of A, and C is 2 km south of B. How far east of the command post is checkpoint C?

Answer: 3 km

B is 3 km east of A, and C is directly south of B with no east-west movement, so C is 3 km east of the command post.

An aerial surveillance photo shows a T-intersection. The top of the T runs east-west and the stem points south. A suspect runs from the intersection toward the stem. In which direction is the suspect moving?

Answer: South

The stem of a T-intersection points away from the crossbar; since the stem points south, the suspect is moving south.