Ratio, proportion and rates of change worksheet — GCSE Foundation

1.A cartographer is choosing a scale for a map to show a small park in as much detail as possible. Which of these scales would show the MOST detail — 1 : 500, 1 : 5000, or 1 : 50 000? Give the correct scale and reason.

2.A laptop is bought for £600. Its value decreases by 20% after 1 year. Work out the value of the laptop after 1 year.

3.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.

4.A shop's takings were £4500 in May. In June the takings fell by £900. Write the June takings as a fraction of the May takings, in its simplest form.

5.A scale drawing of a garden uses a scale of 1 : 20. Write down a formula for the real length, L metres, in terms of the length on the drawing, d centimetres, given that 1 metre = 100 centimetres.

6.A toy manufacturer makes a model aircraft that is mathematically similar to the real aircraft, at a scale of 1 : 48. The wingspan of the model is 15 cm. Work out the wingspan of the real aircraft, giving your answer in metres.

7.Two quantities, P and Q, are in inverse proportion. A graph is drawn with P on the vertical axis and Q on the horizontal axis. Write down which description fits the shape of this graph.

8.A plan is drawn to a scale of 1 : 500. Work out how many metres are represented by 1 cm on the plan.

9.Leah puts £4000 into a savings account paying 3% compound interest each year. At the end of 2 years she takes out all of the money and spends £1500 of it on a laptop. Work out how much of the money she has left.

10.A company's turnover was £128 000 in 2023 and £176 000 in 2024. Work out the multiplier that changes the 2023 turnover into the 2024 turnover.

11.Two printers' running costs are shown on separate straight-line graphs of total cost against number of pages printed. Printer A's graph has gradient £0.04 per page. Printer B's graph has gradient £0.05 per page. Work out how much cheaper it is to print 200 pages on Printer A than on Printer B, based on these running costs alone.

12.In a fruit bowl, the ratio of apples to oranges is 5 : 3. Work out what percentage of the fruit in the bowl is apples.

13.A cyclist travels 18 km in 45 minutes. Work out the average speed, in km/h.

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

15.A train travels at a constant speed of 90 km/h. Work out the speed in m/s.