Printable · GCSE Foundation · ages 14-16
Proportion as equality of ratios worksheet — GCSE Foundation
Fifteen questions on "proportion as equality of ratios" — DfE statement R7. Print it, or print three versions so neighbours cannot copy by letter; the key gives the letter for each version.
Proportion as equality of ratios worksheet — GCSE Foundation
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- 1.A cleaning solution is made by mixing disinfectant and water in the ratio 1 : 9. Priti wants to make 6 litres of the solution in total. Work out how much disinfectant she needs.
- 2.A science technician mixes 400 g of a salt solution of concentration 5% with 100 g of a salt solution of concentration 25%. Work out the concentration of the mixture.
- 3.y is directly proportional to x. When x = 8, y = 20. Work out the value of y when x = 12.
- 4.A recipe for 6 muffins needs 150 g of flour. Aisha wants to make 15 muffins using the same recipe. Work out how much flour she needs.
- 5.Two numbers are in the ratio 3 : 7. Their sum is 60. Work out the positive difference between the two numbers.
- 6.£96 is shared between Ben, Cara and Dev in the ratio 2:3:7. Work out how much Cara receives.
- 7.An acid solution has a concentration of 20%. The solution contains 40 g of acid, and the rest of the solution is water. Work out the mass of water in the solution.
- 8.The ratio of cats to dogs in a shelter is 3:4. There are 18 cats. Work out the total number of animals in the shelter.
- 9.A map has a scale of 1:25000. A road on the map is 6 cm long. Work out the real-life length of the road, giving your answer in kilometres.
- 10.Two numbers are in the ratio 5 : 8. The larger number is 40. Work out the smaller number.
- 11.The ratio of the amount of money Harry has to the amount of money Isla has is 5:3. Harry has £35. Work out how much money Isla has.
- 12.Two numbers A and B are in the ratio 3:5. When 6 is added to B, the ratio of A to the new value of B is 1:2. Work out the value of A.
- 13.A car travels at a constant speed. It travels 150 miles in 3 hours. At the same speed, work out how far it travels in 5 hours.
- 14.The ratio of the number of pages Mia has read to the number of pages Leo has read is 7 : 4. Mia has read 84 pages. Work out how many pages they have read altogether.
- 15.The ratio of the number of red beads to blue beads in a bracelet is 3 : 7. There are 21 blue beads. Work out the number of red beads.
Answer key
- (a) 0.6 litres — The ratio 1 : 9 means the solution has 1 + 9 = 10 equal parts in total. Each part is 6 ÷ 10 = 0.6 litres, and disinfectant is 1 part, so Priti needs 0.6 litres of disinfectant. Giving 0.667 litres divides by 9, the number of parts of water, instead of the total number of parts, 10 (6 ÷ 9 ≈ 0.667). Giving 6 litres is the total amount of solution, not just the disinfectant's share of it. Giving 5.4 litres works out the water's share (6 × 9 ÷ 10 = 5.4), not the disinfectant's.
- (c) 9% — Method: a percentage concentration is the ratio of salt to solution written per 100 g, so scale each concentration to the mass it belongs to, add the two masses of salt, then scale the ratio of salt to mixture back to a denominator of 100. Working: 5:100 = x:400 gives 5 ÷ 100 × 400 = 20 g of salt, and 25:100 = y:100 gives 25 g of salt; the mixture holds 20 + 25 = 45 g of salt in 400 + 100 = 500 g of solution; 45:500 = 9:100. Answer: 9%. The distractors: 15% is the mean of 5% and 25%, which would only be right if the two masses were equal, and here one is four times the other; 21% comes from attaching the concentrations to the wrong masses, working out (400 × 25% + 100 × 5%) ÷ 500; 0.9% comes from working out 45 ÷ 500 = 0.09 and then moving the decimal point one place instead of two when writing the decimal as a percentage.
- (c) 30 — Method: use y = kx and find k from the given pair of values, then substitute x = 12. Working: k = 20 ÷ 8 = 2.5, so y = 2.5 × 12 = 30. Answer: 30. 24 comes from treating the relationship as additive, adding the increase in x (12 − 8 = 4) straight onto y (20 + 4 = 24), instead of multiplying by k. 14.5 comes from finding k correctly (2.5) but then adding it to x instead of multiplying (12 + 2.5 = 14.5). 4.8 comes from finding k upside down, 8 ÷ 20 = 0.4, and multiplying by x: 12 × 0.4 = 4.8.
- (a) 375 g — Find the amount of flour needed per muffin: 150 ÷ 6 = 25 g. Multiply by the new number of muffins: 25 × 15 = 375 g. (60 g comes from using the scale factor the wrong way round, 6/15 × 150. 150 g comes from not scaling the recipe at all. 300 g comes from rounding the scale factor, 15 ÷ 6, down to 2 before multiplying.)
- (d) 24 — Method: split 60 into 3 + 7 = 10 equal parts, find the value of one part, then use the difference in ratio parts. Working: 60 ÷ 10 = 6, so the numbers are 3 × 6 = 18 and 7 × 6 = 42, and their difference is 42 − 18 = 24. Answer: 24. 4 comes from finding the difference between the ratio numbers, 7 − 3, but forgetting to multiply by the value of one part. 60 comes from adding the two numbers back together instead of subtracting, which just repeats the given sum. 80 comes from dividing 60 by the first ratio number, 3, instead of by the total number of parts, 10, giving a part value of 20 and a difference of 7 × 20 − 3 × 20 = 80.
- (d) £24 — Add the parts of the ratio: 2 + 3 + 7 = 12. Find the value of one part: £96 ÷ 12 = £8. Cara's share is 3 parts: 3 × £8 = £24. (£16 is Ben's share, 2 × £8, not Cara's. £56 is Dev's share, 7 × £8, not Cara's. £28.80 comes from wrongly adding the ratio parts as 10 instead of 12, giving one part = £9.60.)
- (a) 160 g — Method: use the ratio 20:100 to find the mass of the whole solution from the mass of acid, then take the acid away to leave the water. Working: 20:100 = 40:m, and 40 ÷ 20 = 2, so m = 2 × 100 = 200 g of solution; the water is 200 − 40 = 160 g. Answer: 160 g. The distractors: 200 g is the mass of the whole solution, which is the middle step and includes the acid the question asks you to leave out; 8 g comes from working out 20% of 40 g, which treats the 40 g as the whole solution rather than as the 20% inside it; 10 g comes from reading the 40 g as the 80% that is water, giving a solution of 50 g and a difference of 50 − 40.
- (a) 42 — Find the value of one part: 18 ÷ 3 = 6. Find the number of dogs: 4 × 6 = 24. Add the cats and the dogs to find the total: 18 + 24 = 42. (24 is the number of dogs only, not the total number of animals. 126 comes from multiplying the number of cats by the total number of parts, 18 × 7, instead of finding one part first. 25 comes from adding the ratio numbers 3 and 4 directly to the number of cats.)
- (b) 1.5 km — Multiply the map length by the scale factor: 6 × 25000 = 150000 cm. Convert to kilometres, using 100 cm = 1 m and 1000 m = 1 km, so 100000 cm = 1 km: 150000 ÷ 100000 = 1.5 km. (1500 km comes from converting only as far as metres, 150000 ÷ 100 = 1500 m, and then writing kilometres on the end. 15 km comes from dividing by 10000 instead of 100000. 0.15 km comes from dividing by 1000000 instead of 100000.)
- (c) 25 — Method: divide the larger number by its ratio part to find the value of one part, then multiply by the smaller number's ratio part. Working: 40 ÷ 8 = 5 (value of one part). Smaller number = 5 × 5 = 25. Wrong options: 64 comes from dividing by the smaller ratio part instead of the larger (40 ÷ 5 × 8); 45 comes from adding the value of one part onto 40 instead of scaling down (40 + 5); 35 comes from subtracting the value of one part from 40 (40 − 5) instead of multiplying it by the smaller ratio part.
- (c) £21 — Method: the two amounts are in the same ratio as 5:3, so write 5:3 = 35:x, find the value of one part and then take the number of parts asked for. Working: Harry's £35 is 5 parts, so one part is £35 ÷ 5 = £7; Isla has 3 parts, so 3 × £7 = £21. Answer: £21. The distractors: £7 is the value of a single part, given as Isla's share instead of being multiplied by the 3 parts she has; £28 comes from finding one part correctly and then working out £35 − £7, subtracting one part from Harry's money instead of taking three parts; £33 comes from treating the ratio additively — the parts differ by 5 − 3 = 2, so £2 is taken off Harry's £35, but a ratio compares by multiplying, not by subtracting.
- (a) 18 — Method: write both numbers with the same multiplier, turn the second ratio into an equation by cross-multiplying, solve for the multiplier and then build A from it. Working: let A = 3k and B = 5k, so 3k : (5k + 6) = 1 : 2; cross-multiplying gives 2 × 3k = 5k + 6, so 6k = 5k + 6 and k = 6; A = 3 × 6 = 18. Answer: 18, and the check works, because B = 30, B + 6 = 36 and 18:36 = 1:2. The distractors: 9 comes from reading the 6 as the difference between the two numbers — 5 − 3 = 2 parts, so one part is 3 and A is 3 × 3 — but the 6 is added to B, it is not the gap between A and B; 6 comes from solving A : (A + 6) = 1 : 2, adding the 6 to A instead of to B; 30 is the value of B, found from the correct multiplier but given in place of A.
- (c) 250 miles — Find the distance travelled in 1 hour: 150 ÷ 3 = 50 miles. Multiply by 5 hours: 50 × 5 = 250 miles. Giving 300 miles doubles the original distance (150 × 2 = 300) using a scale factor of 2 instead of the correct 5 ÷ 3. Giving 200 miles adds only one extra hour's distance, 50, instead of the two extra hours actually needed (150 + 50 = 200, rather than 150 + 100). Giving 90 miles divides by the scale factor instead of multiplying (150 × 3 ÷ 5 = 90).
- (d) 132 — Method: find the value of one part of the ratio, use it to find Leo's pages, then add both amounts together. Working: 84 ÷ 7 = 12 (value of one part). Leo's pages = 12 × 4 = 48. Total = 84 + 48 = 132. Wrong options: 48 gives only Leo's pages and forgets to add Mia's; 147 comes from reversing the ratio parts (84 ÷ 4 × 7 = 147) and stopping there; 231 comes from reversing the ratio parts and then adding Mia's pages (84 + 147).
- (b) 9 — Method: divide the known quantity by its ratio number to find the value of one part, then multiply by the other ratio number. Working: 21 ÷ 7 = 3 (value of one part). Red beads = 3 × 3 = 9. Wrong options: 49 comes from dividing by the wrong ratio number (21 ÷ 3 × 7); 24 comes from adding the ratio number for red (3) to 21 instead of scaling; 14 comes from subtracting the ratio number for blue (7) from 21 instead of scaling.
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