Ratio, proportion and rates of change worksheet — GCSE Higher

1.Two quantities x and y are in direct proportion. When x = 8, the value of y is 20. Work out the value of y when x = 14.

2.The value of a rare coin increases by 12% each year. The coin is currently worth £270. Work out the value of the coin after 2 years, giving your answer to the nearest penny.

3.A metal has a density of 7.8 g/cm³. Work out the density of the metal in kg/m³.

4.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.

5.A cyclist rides 30 km in 1 hour 30 minutes. Work out the average speed of the cyclist in km/h.

6.In a fruit squash mix, the ratio of squash to water is 2 : 9. A shop wants to make up the mix using 3.4 litres of squash. Work out how many litres of water are needed.

7.Given that 1 mile ≈ 1.6 km, work out a speed of 55 mph in km/h.

8.A graph shows y plotted against x. The graph is a curve that gets closer to both axes but never touches them, and y decreases as x increases. Write down whether this graph could show direct proportion, inverse proportion, or neither.

9.A laptop priced at £520 is first increased by 15%, and then the new price is decreased by 20%. Work out the final price of the laptop.

10.A car uses fuel at a constant rate. It uses 24 litres of fuel to travel 300 km. Assuming the same rate, work out how many litres of fuel are needed for a journey of 175 km.

11.Two mathematically similar cylinders have volumes 64 cm³ and 216 cm³. Work out the ratio of the height of the smaller cylinder to the height of the larger cylinder, in simplest form.

12.6 identical taps fill a paddling pool in 20 minutes. Each tap fills at the same steady rate. Work out how long 3 of these taps would take to fill the same pool.

13.The cost, in pounds, of hiring a minibus is modelled against the number of passengers booked. A tangent to the cost graph at 20 passengers passes through the points (16, 184) and (24, 216). Work out the instantaneous rate at which the cost increases with each extra passenger, at 20 passengers.

14.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.

15.The height of water in a tank, h metres, t minutes after a tap is opened is modelled by h = 0.02t² + 0.5. Estimate the instantaneous rate of change of the height at t = 10, using the gradient of the chord joining t = 9 and t = 11.