Algebra worksheet — GCSE Foundation

1.Which of these is an equation, rather than an expression, a formula or an identity?

2.A taxi company charges a £2.50 booking fee plus £1.80 per mile. A journey costs £15.10 in total. Work out the number of miles travelled.

3.A mobile phone tariff charges a fixed £15 plus 20p for every minute of calls made, so the total monthly charge, £C, for m minutes of calls is given by C = 15 + 0.2m. In a month where Ali's charge was £46.60, work out how many minutes of calls he made.

4.A cafe sells coffees at £c each and pastries at £p each. Three coffees and two pastries cost £9.60. Two coffees and two pastries cost £7.60. Work out the price of one coffee.

5.A plumber charges a call-out fee plus an hourly rate. The total cost, y in pounds, of a job lasting x hours is given by y = 45x + 60. Work out the total cost of a job that lasts 3 hours.

6.A stack of firewood has 3 logs in the top layer. Each layer below has 4 more logs than the layer above it. Work out the number of logs in the 6th layer from the top.

7.The mean of four numbers is 12.5. Three of the numbers are 8, 15 and 19. Form an equation using n for the fourth number, and solve it to find n.

8.A gym charges a joining fee plus a monthly fee. Anna paid £100 in total after 3 months of membership. Ben paid £160 in total after 6 months of membership (same joining fee and monthly fee as Anna). Work out the monthly fee.

9.Explain why the equation 4x + 3 = 4x + 10 has no solution for x.

10.Look at the statement 2x + 5 = 17. Considering whether it is an expression, an equation, a formula, or an identity, which classification is correct?

11.A ball is thrown in the air. Its height, h metres, above the ground after t seconds is given in this table: when t = 0, h = 0; when t = 1, h = 15; when t = 2, h = 20; when t = 3, h = 15; when t = 4, h = 0. Use the table to find the two times, in seconds, at which the ball is at ground level.

12.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.

13.A phone company works out a monthly bill, £B, using the formula B = 18 + 0.05t, where £18 is the fixed monthly charge and t is the number of extra text messages sent beyond the free allowance, each charged at 5p. Farida's bill for one month is £24.50. Work out the number of extra text messages, t, she sent.

14.Harry is 14 years old and Mia is 8 years old. Will Harry ever be exactly twice as old as Mia? Give a reason for your answer.

15.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.