Turn, Don't Flip!

A shape can move without sliding even one square. Give it a turn, and every corner travels together... but only one answer keeps the shape truly unchanged. Can you spot it before the grid stops spinning?

Here is a blue arrow shape beside a red centre point. The instruction says: rotate it one quarter turn clockwise. Clockwise means the way clock hands travel. One quarter turn is one right-angle turn. The top moves right, the right moves down, the bottom moves left, and the left moves up. Watch the red point stay fixed while the arrow swings around it. Every corner follows a curved path through the SAME angle. A mirror reverses the shape, but a rotation keeps its corners in the same order. On a coordinate grid, read across first, then up or down. Horizontal comes before vertical. Check each new corner that way. You will not swap the two coordinates when an option looks nearly right.

Let's work through an example. A green L-shape is drawn on a grid, with a black dot marking the centre. It must rotate one quarter turn clockwise about that dot. Which of four options, A, B, C or D, shows the correct result? Start with the long arm. It points up from the dot. After a clockwise quarter turn, it must point right. Cross out A, where it still points up, and B, where it points left. Now follow the short foot. Before turning, it sticks right at the top. As the whole shape turns clockwise, that foot finishes below the right-hand end. Option C puts it above, making a mirror. Option D keeps the corner order and puts the foot below. Check one corner: across six, up three. Say the horizontal coordinate first... six, then three. Everything agrees. The rotated shape is option D.

When you rotate a shape, turn every corner around the fixed point through the stated angle and direction. Keep the corner order, read coordinates horizontally first, and you will spot the true rotation with confidence!