Geometry and measures worksheet — GCSE Higher

1.A tangent to a circle touches the circle at exactly one point, P. Work out the size of the angle between the tangent and the radius drawn to P.

2.Two similar signs have lengths in the ratio 9 : 4. The larger sign has a side of length 14.4 cm. Work out the length of the corresponding side of the smaller sign.

3.A cylindrical drum and a cuboid box are being wrapped for a display. A shop assistant wraps only the flat faces of each item, not any curved surface. How many flat faces in total does the assistant wrap across both items?

4.In triangle ABC and triangle DEF, the angle at A and the angle at D are both 40°, and the angle at B and the angle at E are both 70°. No side lengths are given. Write down whether the two triangles must be similar, with the reason.

5.A cube has all of its edges the same length. How many planes of symmetry does it have?

6.Two traffic cones are geometrically similar. The smaller cone has height 6 m and the larger cone has height 9 m. Work out the ratio of the volume of the smaller cone to the volume of the larger cone, giving your answer in the form a : b in its simplest form.

7.In triangle ABC, angle ABC = 72° and angle ACB = 48°. Side AB = (2x + 1) cm and side AC = (3x − 2) cm. Work out the value of x. Give your answer to 1 decimal place.

8.OABC is a parallelogram, with OA = a and OC = c. X is the point on AC such that AX is a third of XC. Express the vector OX in terms of a and c.

9.A builder lays a low wall made from identical bricks. The diagram shows the plan of the wall's footprint on a grid, where each square is one brick. The wall is built up to a height of 4 bricks everywhere. Work out the total number of bricks used.

10.A wooden cube has edges of length 4 cm. Work out the total surface area of the cube.

11.A sector of a circle has angle 120° and an arc length of 31.4 cm. Using π = 3.14, work out the radius of the circle.

12.Two points on a circle divide its circumference into two arcs of different lengths. Write down the name given to the shorter of the two arcs.

13.A chocolate bar is a prism. Its cross-section is a triangle with a base of 6 cm and a perpendicular height of 5 cm, and the bar is 12 cm long. Work out the volume of the bar.

14.A cube has edges of length 5 cm. Work out the length of the diagonal that runs from one corner of the cube to the opposite corner. Give your answer as a surd in its simplest form.

15.AB is a diameter of a circle with centre O, and C is a point on the circle. A student writes four statements to prove that angle ACB = 90°. Statement 1: OA = OC, since both are radii, so triangle OAC is isosceles with angle OAC = angle OCA. Statement 2: OB = OC, since both are radii, so triangle OBC is isosceles with angle OBC = angle OCB. Statement 3: in triangle ABC, the three angles sum to 360°, so angle OAC + angle OBC + angle ACB = 360°, meaning 2 × angle ACB = 360° and angle ACB = 180°. Statement 4: A, O and B lie on a straight line, since AB is a diameter through the centre O. Which one of these four statements is mathematically incorrect?