Ratio, proportion and rates of change worksheet — GCSE Foundation

1.A garden centre sells two mathematically similar sacks of grass seed. The amount of lawn a sack can treat is proportional to the volume of seed inside it. The smaller sack is 20 cm tall and treats a lawn of area 30 m². The larger sack is 40 cm tall. A gardener needs to treat a lawn with an area of 500 m² using only the larger sacks. Work out the minimum number of larger sacks needed.

2.Two taxi firms show their charges on straight-line graphs, with the cost in pounds on the vertical axis and the distance in miles on the horizontal axis. Firm A's line passes through (0, 4) and (5, 14). Firm B's line passes through (0, 6) and (5, 21). Work out which firm charges more per mile.

3.A furniture maker builds two mathematically similar bookcases. The smaller bookcase is 40 cm tall and uses 2 m² of wood. The larger bookcase is 60 cm tall. Work out the area of wood needed for the larger bookcase, giving your answer in m².

4.Two mathematically similar triangular flags have areas in the ratio 4 : 25. The height of the smaller flag is 6 cm. Work out the height of the larger flag.

5.A scale drawing of a car park has a scale of 1 : 300. On the drawing, the car park has an area of 15 cm². Work out the real area of the car park, in square metres.

6.The number of euros, e, received is directly proportional to the number of pounds, p, exchanged. Exchanging £40 gives 46 euros. Work out how many euros are received for £65, giving your answer to the nearest euro.

7.A laptop priced at £520 is first increased by 15%, and then the new price is decreased by 20%. Work out the final price of the laptop.

8.An Ordnance Survey map has a scale of 1 : 50 000. A cycle route measures 9.4 cm on the map. Work out the real length of the route, in kilometres.

9.It takes 2 identical pumps 10 hours to empty a flooded basement. Working at the same rate, work out how many hours 5 of these pumps would take to empty the same basement.

10.A plumber charges a call-out fee plus an hourly rate. The total charge, C pounds, for a job lasting h hours is shown on a straight-line graph. The line passes through the points (2, 70) and (5, 130). Work out the call-out fee, in pounds.

11.The density of a type of solid plastic is 0.9 g/cm³. Work out the mass of 0.5 m³ of the plastic, in kilograms.

12.A film runs for 2.25 hours. Work out the length of the film in minutes.

13.Two mathematically similar garden ponds have surface areas of 12 m² and 27 m². The fencing needed to go around the smaller pond costs £96. Assuming the cost of fencing is proportional to the perimeter of the pond, work out the cost of fencing the larger pond.

14.A tap fills a tank at a rate of 15 litres per minute. Given that 1 litre = 1000 cm³, work out the rate at which the tank fills in cm³ per second.

15.A graph shows two quantities, x and y, in direct proportion. Write down which statement about the graph must be true.