Geometry and measures worksheet — GCSE Higher

1.A children's slide is built as a right-angled triangle: the vertical ladder side is 2.4 m, the horizontal base along the ground is 3.2 m, and the sloping slide is the third side. Work out the exact length of the sloping slide.

2.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?

4.In one circle, chord PQ is 6 cm long, chord RS is 10 cm long, chord TU is 14 cm long and chord VW is 15 cm long. Write down which of these chords lies closest to the centre of the circle.

5.An engineer models a technical drawing on a coordinate grid. A component is reflected in the line x = 2, and the image is then reflected in the line x = 6. Which single transformation has the same overall effect as these two reflections, for every point on the drawing?

6.A goat is tied by a rope 7 m long to a post at a corner of a rectangular field, where two fences meet at a right angle. The goat can reach anywhere inside the field that the rope allows. Using π = 3.14, work out the area the goat can graze, to the nearest square metre.

7.In triangle ABC, AB = 10 cm, BC = 7 cm and angle ACB = 35°. Given that angle BAC is acute, work out the length of AC. Give your answer to 1 decimal place.

8.A solid cylinder is lying on its curved side on a table, with its circular ends facing left and right. What shape is its plan view, looking down from above?

9.A square-based pyramid is cut by a flat plane parallel to its base, partway up between the base and the apex. What shape is the cross-section?

10.Point P(2, 5) is enlarged with centre (2, 1) to give image point P′(2, −7). Work out the scale factor of the enlargement.

11.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.

12.A solid has 5 faces: one square face and four triangular faces, which all meet at a single point above the square. What is the name of this solid?

13.A cylindrical candle and a cone-shaped candle have the same base radius and the same height. State the cone's volume as a fraction of the cylinder's volume.

14.Triangles PQS and RQS share the common side QS. PQ equals RQ, and PS equals RS. Which condition proves that triangle PQS is congruent to triangle RQS?

15.A circle has centre O. Radii OA and OB are drawn, together with the arc AB, enclosing a sector. The straight chord AB is also drawn. Write down the name of the region enclosed between the chord AB and the arc AB.