Algebra worksheet — GCSE Foundation

1.A car park charges by the hour. Parking for 1 hour costs £5, 2 hours costs £9, 3 hours costs £13 and 4 hours costs £17, with the cost increasing by the same amount for each extra hour. Work out an expression, in terms of n, for the cost, in pounds, of parking for n hours.

2.A gas company charges a standing charge plus a rate per unit used. The total cost, y in pounds, for using x units is given by y = 0.15x + 20. Work out the cost of using 200 units.

3.A hiker's distance-time graph shows the following: he walks 5 km in the first 1 hour at a steady speed, rests for 1 hour, then walks a further 9 km in the next 2 hours, also at a steady speed. Work out his average speed for the whole journey, in km/h.

4.The formula for the perimeter of a rectangle is P = 2(l + w). One rectangle has l = 9 cm and w = 4 cm. A second rectangle has l = 6 cm and w = 5 cm. Work out how many cm greater the perimeter of the first rectangle is than the perimeter of the second.

5.A recipe gives the cooking time, in minutes, for a chicken as T = 40m + 20, where m is the mass in kg. A chicken has a mass of 1.8 kg. Work out the cooking time in hours and minutes.

6.Work out the value of 4p² − 3 when p = 2.5

7.A taxi charges a fixed fee of £3 plus £2 for every mile travelled. The journey is m miles. Write down an expression for the total cost, in pounds.

8.Yuki is y years old. Her brother is 4 years younger than Yuki. Write down an expression, in terms of y, for the brother's age in 5 years' time.

9.A ferry's distance-time graph is a straight line from (0 minutes, 0 km) to (25 minutes, 15 km). Work out the ferry's speed in kilometres per hour.

10.A phone plan costs a fixed £15 per month plus 8p per minute of calls. In one month, Jamal's bill was £23.80. Form an equation using m for the number of minutes, and solve it to find how many minutes Jamal used that month.

11.Solve 2x² − 32 = 0.

12.A colony of bacteria doubles in number every hour. At 9am there are 5 bacteria in the colony. Work out how many bacteria there will be at 12 noon.

13.A tree is 2 metres tall. Each year its height increases by 10% of its height at the start of that year. Work out the height of the tree after 3 years, giving your answer to 1 decimal place.

14.A rectangle has length k cm and width 5 cm less than its length. Write down an expression for the width of the rectangle, in cm.

15.A regular hexagon has sides of length (x + 2) cm. Write down an expression, in terms of x, for the perimeter of the hexagon.