Ratio, proportion and rates of change worksheet — GCSE Higher

1.A 750 g box of cereal costs £2.70. A 500 g box of the same cereal costs £1.95. Work out which box is better value, and its cost per 100 g.

2.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.

3.A charity receives £360 in donations in January and £480 in donations in February. Write the amount received in January as a fraction of the amount received in February, giving your answer in its simplest form.

4.A post 2 metres tall casts a shadow 3 metres long. At the same time a nearby tree casts a shadow 12 metres long. Work out the height of the tree.

5.Write 2 m : 150 cm : 50 cm as a ratio of whole numbers in its simplest form.

6.A straight-line graph passes through the origin and the point (4, 10). The line represents y = kx. Write down the ratio x : y in its simplest form.

7.Write 45 minutes : 2 hours as a ratio in its simplest form.

8.On a straight-line graph the volume of water, V litres, in a tank is plotted on the vertical axis and the time, t minutes, on the horizontal axis. The line passes through (2, 50) and (6, 130). Work out the gradient of the line and give its units.

9.Aisha invests £3200 in Account A, which pays 5% compound interest each year. She also invests £3200 in Account B, which pays 3% simple interest each year. Work out how much more Account A is worth than Account B after 2 years.

10.A recipe uses flour, sugar and butter in the ratio 8 : 3 : 5. Write the ratio of flour to the rest of the mixture (sugar and butter combined) in its simplest form.

11.A dog walker's charge, C pounds, for walking a dog for m minutes is shown on a straight-line graph. The line passes through the points (20, 14) and (50, 26). Work out the charge for a 65-minute walk.

12.A hiker's distance from the start of the trail, in kilometres, is plotted against time, in minutes, since she set off. At t = 45 minutes she stops to rest, so her distance from the start is neither increasing nor decreasing at that instant. Which statement about the tangent to the distance–time graph at t = 45 minutes is correct?

13.Triangle ABC is mathematically similar to triangle PQR, with AB corresponding to PQ and BC corresponding to QR. AB = 6 cm, BC = 8 cm and PQ = 12 cm. Work out the length of QR.

14.A map's scale is given as '1 cm represents 2 km'. Write this scale in the form 1 : n.

15.A tangent to a curve at the point where x = 3 passes through the points (1, 4) and (5, 20). Work out the gradient of the tangent at x = 3, and hence the instantaneous rate of change of y with respect to x at that point.