Printable · GCSE Foundation · ages 14-16
Geometry and measures worksheet — GCSE Foundation
Fifteen questions across the geometry and measures statements at Foundation tier. Choose the non-calculator filter to rehearse Paper 1, which counts for a third of the marks.
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Geometry and measures worksheet — GCSE Foundation
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- 1.A shop sells a scale model of a van. The model and the real van are similar shapes, with lengths in the ratio 1 : 24. The model is 18.5 cm long. Work out the length of the real van, giving your answer in metres.
- 2.A ramp is built from two straight metal supports that rest on the flat ground and meet each other at the top, forming a triangle with the ground. One support meets the ground at 34°. The angle between the two supports where they meet is 71°. Work out the angle between the second support and the ground.
- 3.A solid has 4 triangular faces, 4 vertices and 6 edges. What is the name of this solid?
- 4.A triangle has vertices A(1, 1), B(5, 1) and C(5, 4). Work out the lengths of AB, BC and CA, and write down whether triangle ABC is right-angled.
- 5.A water tank is a cube with edges of length 2 m. Work out how many cubic centimetres the tank holds when it is full.
- 6.Two straight lines cross at a point. Which statement about a pair of vertically opposite angles is always true?
- 7.Two similar hexagonal tiles have lengths in the ratio 4 : 7. A side of the smaller tile is 8.4 cm long. Work out the length of the corresponding side of the larger tile.
- 8.A shop stacks identical storage crates in a display. The diagram shows the plan of the floor positions used, with one corner position marked. Every floor position is filled with crates stacked 3 high, except the marked corner position, which is left completely empty. Work out how many crates are used in total.
- 9.A solid has 5 faces: one square face and four triangular faces, which all meet at a single point above the square. What is the name of this solid?
- 10.A sailmaker cuts two triangular sail panels from a pattern. Panel X has a 10 m side, with angles of 50° and 75° at its two ends. Panel Y also has a 10 m side, with angles of 50° and 75° at its two ends, in the same arrangement. The sailmaker wants to check the panels will match exactly, without cutting a third measurement. Which condition proves the two panels are congruent?
- 11.Two metal window frames are checked before installation. Frame A has edges of 40 cm and 65 cm, with a marked angle of 35° at the far end of the 65 cm edge, away from where the two given edges meet. Frame B has matching edges of 40 cm and 65 cm, with a matching 35° angle in the same position. The fitter wants to know if these measurements alone guarantee the two frames are congruent. What should the fitter be told?
- 12.A tile is described as having two pairs of parallel sides, four equal sides, and diagonals that cross at right angles but are not equal in length. Give a reason why this tile cannot be a square.
- 13.A zip-wire is fixed at an angle of 60° to the horizontal ground. The zip-wire is 12 m long. Using the exact value of cos 60°, work out the exact horizontal distance it covers.
- 14.Two straight roads cross at a junction. The angle between them, measured with a protractor, is 118°. What is the size of the angle vertically opposite to it?
- 15.A shape is translated by the vector . The point P(6, 1) lies on the shape. Write down the coordinates of the image of P.
Answer key
- (d) 4.44 m — The real van's length is 18.5 × 24 = 444 cm, which converts to 4.44 m. '0.77 m' comes from dividing by 24 instead of multiplying, using the ratio the wrong way round (18.5 ÷ 24 = 0.77 cm), and then writing that figure down as metres. '44.4 m' comes from converting 444 cm to metres with the decimal point in the wrong place. '444 m' comes from working out 444 cm correctly but forgetting to convert it into metres at all.
- (a) 75° — The three angles in the triangle formed by the two supports and the ground add up to 180°. Two of the angles are 34° and 71°, so the third angle is 180 − 34 − 71 = 75, which is 75°. 105° comes from adding the two given angles together instead of subtracting them from 180° (34 + 71 = 105). 146° comes from computing 180 − 34 = 146 and forgetting to also subtract 71°. 37° comes from subtracting the two given angles from each other instead of using the triangle's angle sum (71 − 34 = 37).
- (a) Triangular-based pyramid (tetrahedron) — A solid with 4 triangular faces, 4 vertices and 6 edges is a triangular-based pyramid, also called a tetrahedron. A triangular prism also has triangular faces, but it has 2 triangular faces plus 3 rectangular faces, 6 vertices and 9 edges — the extra rectangular faces and edges rule it out here. A square-based pyramid has 5 faces (one square, four triangles), 5 vertices and 8 edges, which does not match. A cube has 6 faces, 8 vertices and 12 edges, all much higher than the numbers given. The solid described is a triangular-based pyramid.
- (d) Yes, since 3² + 4² = 5² — AB is horizontal with length 5 − 1 = 4, BC is vertical with length 4 − 1 = 3, and CA = √(4² + 3²) = √25 = 5. Since the two shorter sides satisfy 3² + 4² = 5², the triangle is right-angled, with the right angle at B. "No, since 3 + 4 ≠ 5" wrongly tests Pythagoras' theorem by adding the sides instead of squaring them first. "No, since AB, BC and CA are not all equal" confuses a right-angled triangle with an equilateral one — a triangle does not need equal sides to have a right angle. "Yes, since 4² + 5² = 3²" reaches the correct conclusion but puts the longest side, 5, on the wrong side of the equation, as if it were one of the two shorter sides instead of the hypotenuse.
- (a) 8,000,000 cm³ — Method: change the edge length into centimetres first and then cube it, because 1 m = 100 cm and a volume needs that conversion applied to all three dimensions. Working: 2 m = 2 × 100 = 200 cm, so the volume is 200 × 200 × 200. 200 × 200 = 40,000 and 40,000 × 200 = 8,000,000. Answer: 8,000,000 cm³. The distractors: 8,000 cm³ comes from converting 2 m to 20 cm and cubing that; 80,000 cm³ comes from cubing in metres to get 8 m³ and then multiplying by 10,000, the conversion factor for an area rather than the 1,000,000 a volume needs; 8 cm³ comes from cubing the 2 without converting at all and simply writing cm³ because the question asked for that unit.
- (d) They are always equal to each other — Method: label the four angles a, b, c, d in order around the crossing point, then use the fact that neighbouring angles lie on a straight line. Working: a and b lie on a straight line, so a + b = 180°; b and c also lie on a straight line, so b + c = 180°. Both a and c are therefore 180° minus b, which forces a = c. Answer: a pair of vertically opposite angles is always equal to each other. The distractors: the claim that each is 90° holds only when the two lines happen to be perpendicular, so it is not always true; the claim that they add to 180° confuses the opposite pair with the neighbouring pair that lies along a straight line, and again holds only in the perpendicular case; the claim that they add to 360° uses the total of all four angles at the point rather than of the opposite pair.
- (c) 14.7 cm — The scale factor from the smaller tile to the larger tile is 7 ÷ 4 = 1.75, so the larger side is 8.4 × 1.75 = 14.7 cm. '4.8 cm' comes from scaling by 4 ÷ 7 instead, using the ratio the wrong way round. '11.4 cm' comes from adding the difference between the ratio numbers, 7 − 4 = 3, onto 8.4, instead of scaling. '58.8 cm' comes from multiplying by 7 on its own, using a ratio number as the scale factor instead of working out 7 ÷ 4 = 1.75 first.
- (a) 33 — Method: total crates = (number of floor positions that actually have crates on them) × (the stack height). Working: there are 4 × 3 = 12 floor positions in the whole arrangement, but one corner position is left empty, leaving 11 filled positions; each filled position is stacked 3 crates high, so 11 × 3 = 33. Answer: 33. The distractors: 36 comes from forgetting to remove the empty corner and using all 12 positions (12 × 3). 35 comes from removing only one crate for the empty corner instead of the full stack of 3 (36 − 1). 11 comes from counting the filled floor positions and stopping there, forgetting that each one carries a stack 3 crates high.
- (a) Square-based pyramid — A solid with one square base and four triangular faces meeting at a single apex above the base is a square-based pyramid. A triangular prism has two triangular faces and three rectangular faces, not a square base with four triangles, so that is a different solid. A cube has six square faces, and a cuboid has six rectangular faces — neither has any triangular faces at all. The solid described is a square-based pyramid.
- (c) ASA — Method: check which condition matches two angles and the side between them, since that is all the sailmaker has measured. Working: the 10 m side lies between the 50° and 75° angles in both panels, so this is two Angles and the included Side, ASA. Options: SAS would need two sides and the angle between them, but only one side has been measured here; SSS would need three sides, but only one is known; RHS needs a right angle and a hypotenuse, and neither panel has a stated right angle. Answer: ASA.
- (a) No — the angle is not between the two sides — Method: check whether the given angle sits between the two given sides. Working: the 35° angle is marked away from the corner where the 40 cm and 65 cm edges meet, so it is not the included angle — this is SSA, which is not one of the four basic congruence conditions, so it does not guarantee congruence. Options: 'Yes — SAS' wrongly treats any two sides plus any angle as SAS, without checking the angle's position; 'Yes — SSS' wrongly counts the angle as if it were a third side; 'No — only two sides measured' is not the real reason, since SAS itself only needs two sides, so this reasoning is beside the point. Answer: no, the angle is not between the two sides.
- (a) A square's diagonals are equal in length — A square has two pairs of parallel sides, four equal sides, and diagonals that are equal in length and cross at right angles. This tile's diagonals are not equal, so it is a rhombus that is not a square.
- (d) 6 m — The horizontal distance is adjacent to the 60° angle and the zip-wire is the hypotenuse, so horizontal distance = 12 × cos 60° = 12 × 1/2 = 6 m. 6√3 m comes from using sin 60° = √3/2 instead of cos 60°, which would give the vertical drop, not the horizontal distance. 4√3 m comes from treating 12 as the side adjacent to a tangent ratio and dividing by tan 60° = √3. 24 m comes from dividing 12 by cos 60° instead of multiplying by it.
- (a) 118° — When two straight lines cross, the angles that are vertically opposite each other are always equal. So the angle vertically opposite 118° is also 118°. A candidate who instead finds the angle next to it on the straight line, using 180° − 118° = 62°, has found the adjacent angle, not the vertically opposite one. A candidate who answers 180° has confused the rule with angles on a straight line. A candidate who doubles the angle, giving 236°, has applied no valid angle rule at all. The vertically opposite angle is 118°.
- (b) (3, 5) — Method: add the top number of the vector to the x-coordinate and the bottom number to the y-coordinate. Working: adding −3 to the x-coordinate is 6 − 3 = 3, and adding 4 to the y-coordinate is 1 + 4 = 5. Answer: the image of P is (3, 5). Subtracting the vector instead of adding it reverses the translation and gives (9, −3). Adding the top number but subtracting the bottom one, on the assumption that the lower entry always means downwards, gives (3, −3); the minus sign in a vector has already recorded the direction. Reading the two numbers the wrong way round, so that the shape moves 4 across and 3 down, gives (10, −2).
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