Algebra worksheet — GCSE Foundation

1.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.

2.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.

3.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.

4.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.

5.Amelia's mother is three times as old as Amelia. Four years ago her mother was five times as old as Amelia was then. Work out Amelia's age now.

6.The graph of W = 840 ÷ L shows how the width, W metres, of a rectangular field of area 840 m² depends on its length, L metres. Use the relationship to work out the width when the length is 35 m, and hence the perimeter of the field.

7.Which expression is equivalent to 0.5(4x + 6) − x?

8.A formula is F = 4s. A pupil says that when s = 5 the value of F is 9, because they added 4 and 5 instead of multiplying. Work out the correct value of F when s = 5.

9.Six years ago Harry was three times as old as his brother Leo. Harry is now 24 years old. Work out Leo's age now.

10.A square tile has an area of 144 cm². Work out the side length of the tile.

11.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.

12.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.

13.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.

14.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.

15.The graph of y = x² − 2x − 8 takes these values: when x = −2, y = 0; when x = −1, y = −5; when x = 0, y = −8; when x = 3, y = −5; when x = 4, y = 0. Use these values to write down the two solutions of x² − 2x − 8 = 0.