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.

Distance covered by the competitor to pick and drop the first potato = 2 × 5 m = 10 m

Distance covered by the competitor to pick and drop the second potato = 2 × (5 + 3) m = 2 × 8 m = 16 m

Distance covered by the competitor to pick and drop the third potato = 2 × (5 + 3 + 3) m = 2 × 11 m = 22 m and so on.

∴ Total distance covered by the competitor = 10 m + 16 m + 22 m + ... up to 10 terms

This is an arithmetic series.

Here, a = 10, d = 16 − 10 = 6 and n = 10

Using the formula, $S_{n}=\frac{n}{2}[2 a+(n-1) d]$, we get

$S_{10}=\frac{10}{2}[2 \times 10+(10-1) \times 6]$

$=5 \times(20+54)$

$=5 \times 74$

$=370$

Hence, the total distance the competitor has to run is 370 m.