Geometry and measures worksheet — GCSE Higher

1.In quadrilateral ABCD the two sides AB and BC are each 6 cm long and meet each other at B. The two sides CD and DA are each 9 cm long and meet each other at D. No side of ABCD is parallel to any other side. Write down the mathematical name of this quadrilateral.

2.A parallelogram has an area of 84 cm² and a base of 12 cm. Work out the perpendicular height of the parallelogram.

3.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.

4.A solid has 6 faces: one pentagon and five triangles that all meet at a single point above the pentagon. What is the name of this solid?

5.From an external point P, two tangents PA and PB touch a circle with centre O at the points A and B. Angle APB = 46°. C is a point on the major arc AB, the arc on the opposite side of AB from P. Work out the size of angle ACB.

6.A right-angled triangle has a hypotenuse of 14 cm. One of the other angles is 30°. Work out the exact length of the side opposite the 30° angle.

7.Two cylindrical storage tins are geometrically similar. The smaller tin has height 4 cm and the larger tin has height 6 cm. Work out the ratio of the surface area of the smaller tin to the surface area of the larger tin, giving your answer in the form a : b in its simplest form.

8.A cable supporting a flagpole is anchored to the ground 5 m from the base of the pole. The cable makes an angle of 60° with the ground. Using the exact value of tan 60°, work out the exact height of the flagpole.

9.The diagram shows the plan view and the front elevation of a cuboid-shaped box, each drawn as a rectangle. Work out the area of the box's side elevation, in square centimetres.

10.Two similar triangular tiles have lengths in the ratio 3 : 5. The longest side of the smaller tile is 9 cm. Work out the length of the longest side of the larger tile.

11.A sector of a circle has radius 9 cm and angle 40°. Work out the area of the sector, in terms of π.

12.Triangle ABC and triangle DEF are similar. The area of triangle ABC is 36 cm² and the area of triangle DEF is 100 cm². Work out the ratio of the lengths of triangle ABC to the lengths of triangle DEF, in its simplest form.

13.Triangle S has vertices (2, 2), (5, 2) and (2, 5). It is mapped onto triangle S′ with vertices (2, 5), (5, 5) and (2, 2). Which single composition of two transformations maps S onto S′?

14.A ramp rises at 30° to the horizontal. Its sloping surface is 4.8 m long. Safety rules say the vertical rise of a ramp must be no more than 2.5 m. Work out how far below that limit the rise of this ramp is.

15.A, B and C are points on a circle with centre O, and AB is a diameter. Prove that angle ACB = 90°, using the fact that triangle OAC and triangle OBC are both isosceles. In the proof, angle OAC = angle OCA = x and angle OBC = angle OCB = y. Which equation correctly expresses the angle sum of triangle ABC in terms of x and y, and leads to the required proof?