Algebra worksheet — GCSE Foundation

1.A plumber charges a call-out fee of £30 plus £25 per hour worked. Work out the total charge for a job that takes 3 hours.

2.A park is drawn on a grid in which 1 unit represents 1 km. The car park is at the point (0, 0) and the lake is at the point (3, 5). Work out the direct distance, in km, from the car park to the lake, giving your answer to 1 decimal place.

3.On Monday, a runner covers 15 km in 2.5 hours. On Tuesday, she covers 12 km in 1.5 hours. Using the formula speed = distance ÷ time, work out on which day she ran faster, and by how much.

4.Two brothers have ages that add up to 30. The elder brother is 6 years older than the younger brother. Work out the age of the younger brother.

5.A taxi firm charges a fixed fee of £3.50 plus £2.20 per mile. Work out the total cost of a journey of 6 miles.

6.A runner's journey is shown on a distance-time graph: she runs 8 km in the first hour, rests for 30 minutes with no distance gained, then runs a further 4 km in the next 30 minutes. Work out her average speed for the whole journey, in kilometres per hour.

7.Three consecutive integers add up to 72. Using n for the smallest integer, form an equation and solve it to find the smallest of the three integers.

8.Solve the inequality 2(3x − 1) ≥ 4x + 8.

9.The graph of t = 240 ÷ s shows how the time, t hours, taken for a car journey of 240 miles depends on its average speed, s mph. Use the relationship to work out the time taken when the average speed is 48 mph.

10.A taxi fare, in pounds, for a journey of m miles is given by the formula F = 3 + 2.5m. A journey costs £15.50. Work out the distance travelled, m, by first rearranging the formula to make m the subject, then substituting F = 15.50.

11.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.

12.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.

13.A rectangle has width x cm. Its length is 3 cm more than its width. The perimeter of the rectangle is 38 cm. Form an equation and solve it to find x.

14.Kai writes the expression 8 − 3x + 5x² and says it has three terms. Ryan says it only has two terms because a number on its own is not a term. Work out the correct number of terms in the expression.

15.A cyclist's distance-time graph shows the following: she travels 12 km in the first 30 minutes at a steady speed, then rests for 30 minutes, then travels a further 8 km in the next 15 minutes. Work out her average speed, in km/h, for the whole journey.