In a potato race, a bucket is placed at the starting point, which is 5 m from the first potato,and the other potatoes are placed 3 m apart in a straight line. There are ten potatoes in theline (see Fig. 5.6).
A competitor starts from the bucket, picks up the nearest potato, runs back with it, dropsit in the bucket, runs back to pick up the next potato, runs to the bucket to drop it in, andshe continues in the same way until all the potatoes are in the bucket. What is the totaldistance the competitor has to run?
[Hint : To pick up the first potato and the second potato, the total distance (in metres)run by a competitor is 
Distance covered in picking and dropping 1st potato = 2 x 5 = 10 m
Distance covered in picking and dropping 2nd potato = 2 (5+3) = 16 m
Distance covered in picking and dropping 3rd potato = 2(5 + 3 + 3) = 22 m
Therefore, a = 10, d = 6 and n = 10
Total distance can be calculated as follows:
= 5(20 + 54)
= 5*74
= 370 m