Algebra worksheet — GCSE Foundation

1.A scout leader is 44 years old and one of the scouts is 16 years old. Work out how many years it will be until the leader is exactly twice as old as the scout.

2.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.

3.The formula connecting distance (d), speed (s) and time (t) is d = st. Make s the subject of the formula.

4.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.

5.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.

6.Mia buys 3 identical notebooks and a pen costing £1.50. She pays a total of £9.90. Form an equation using n for the cost of one notebook, and solve it to find n.

7.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.

8.A person's body mass index is given by the formula B = m ÷ h², where m is the mass in kg and h is the height in metres. Work out B, to 1 decimal place, when m = 68 and h = 1.6.

9.Solve 2x² − 32 = 0.

10.Two numbers have a sum of 45. The larger number is 9 more than the smaller number. Form an equation using n for the smaller number, and solve it to find the larger number.

11.Ethan is 10 years old and his father is 40 years old. Work out how many years ago Ethan's father was seven times as old as Ethan.

12.The graph of P = 480 ÷ V shows how the pressure, P pascals, of a gas depends on its volume, V cm³, at constant temperature. Use the relationship to work out the volume when the pressure is 32 pascals, and then work out by how much the volume increases when the pressure drops to 24 pascals.

13.Four sequences are shown below. Sequence P: 4, 8, 16, 32, ... Sequence Q: 4, 8, 12, 16, ... Sequence R: 4, 7, 12, 19, ... Sequence S: 4, 9, 16, 25, ... Work out which of the sequences P, Q, R and S is geometric.

14.A car's speed-time graph shows the following: its speed increases steadily from 0 m/s to 20 m/s over the first 10 seconds, then stays constant at 20 m/s for the next 15 seconds. Work out the total distance travelled in the first 25 seconds.

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