What is the distance covered to pick up the second potato and drop it in bucket ?
What is the distance covered to pick up the second potato and drop it in bucket ?
Official answer
16 m — the second potato is from the bucket, so the round trip is .
Marking scheme
- 1.1 mark: correct final answer of 16 m, showing the distance 8 m to the potato doubled for the return trip.
Hint
Second potato is from the bucket; double it for the round trip.
Quick oral answer
The second potato is 8 m from the bucket (5 m + 3 m gap), so the round trip is .
Common mistakes
- 1.Forgetting to add the 3 m gap between the first and second potato before doubling.
- 2.Doubling only the gap (3 m) instead of the full distance from the bucket (8 m).
Analysis and explanation
Checks whether the 3 m gap between potatoes is correctly added before doubling for the return trip, revealing the AP's common difference.
Concept
- Second potato lies 3 m further than the first, so its one-way distance is ; the round trip doubles this.
- Comparing 16 m (2nd potato) to 10 m (1st potato) gives common difference , since the 3 m gap is doubled on both legs.
Key Points
- One-way distance to 2nd potato = 8 m; round trip = 16 m.
- AP so far: with .
Common Mistakes
- Adding the 3 m gap only once instead of accounting for both the outward and return legs.
- Confusing the one-way gap (3 m) with the round-trip common difference (6 m).
Interesting facts
The pattern of round-trip distances () forms an AP with common difference 6 m — exactly twice the 3 m gap between potatoes.
This kind of 'shuttle run' distance problem is also used in physical education research to estimate athlete fatigue over repeated sprints.
Question details
Q44 of 56 questions
- Board
- CBSE
- Class
- Class 10
- Subject
- Mathematics (Standard)
- Year
- 2026
- Section
- Section E
- Marks
- 1
- Type
- Very Short Answer
- Chapter
- Arithmetic Progressions
- Topic
- Arithmetic Progressions - Application (Potato Race)
- Bloom's level
- apply
- Syllabus topic
- Unit II: Algebra — Arithmetic Progressions: real-life application of nth term
- Author
- CBSE
- Reviewed by
- Padhantu Academic Team
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Frequently asked questions
What is the common difference of the AP formed here?
6 m, since each potato is 3 m farther than the previous one and the distance is doubled for the round trip ().