Geometry and measures worksheet — GCSE Higher

1.A vertical flagpole casts a shadow 6 m long at the same time as a 1.2 m vertical post casts a shadow 1.8 m long. The flagpole and the post are both vertical, and the triangles formed by each object, its shadow, and the sun's ray are similar. Work out the height of the flagpole.

2.Two similar triangles have lengths in the ratio 2 : 5. The sides of the smaller triangle are 4 cm, 6 cm and 8 cm. Work out the length of the longest side of the larger triangle.

3.A treasure map has a scale of 1 cm to 4 m. A path from the start to a rock is drawn as two straight sections, measuring 3 cm and 2.5 cm. Work out the total real distance from the start to the rock, in metres.

4.A game designer places a coin at (5, 3) on a grid. The game rotates the coin 90° clockwise about the point (2, 3) each time the player presses a button, and this is applied twice in a row. Work out the coordinates of the coin after the button is pressed twice.

5.A tangent touches a circle with centre O at the point P. Q is a point on the tangent. Write down the circle fact that tells you the size of angle OPQ.

6.In triangle ABC, angle BAC = 42°, angle ABC = 63° and BC = 8.4 cm. Work out the length of AC. Give your answer to 1 decimal place.

7.A tile manufacturer cuts a hexagonal tile so that all six sides measure exactly 4 cm, but a check shows only two pairs of the six interior angles are equal to each other, not all six angles. The customer's order specifies regular hexagonal tiles. Based on the check, is this tile a regular hexagon?

8.In triangle ABC, angle A is 2x°, angle B is 3x° and angle C is 4x°. Work out the size of angle B.

9.A ship's radar can detect other ships up to 20 km away, over a sector-shaped area with angle 90°. A monitoring company charges £0.50 per square kilometre covered by one radar sweep. Using π = 3.14, work out the total charge for one sweep.

10.A rectangle has vertices A(0, 0), B(6, 0), C(6, 4) and D(0, 4). Work out the length of the diagonal AC. Give your answer correct to 2 decimal places.

11.A rectangular photograph has an area of 96 cm². One of its sides is 8 cm long. Work out the length of the other side.

12.The diagram shows a solid resting on its side on a table. Work out which shape is its plan view, the view looking straight down from above.

14.A hiker walks on a bearing of 065°. She then turns clockwise through 90° and continues walking in a straight line. What bearing is she now walking on?

15.A ladder of length 7 m leans against a vertical wall. The foot of the ladder is 3 m from the base of the wall. Work out how high up the wall the ladder reaches. Give your answer correct to 1 decimal place.