Ratio, proportion and rates of change worksheet — GCSE Higher

1.A cyclist travels d kilometres in t hours. Write down an expression, in terms of d and t, for the cyclist's average speed in km/h.

2.A beaker holds 500 g of a salt solution of concentration 12%. Pure water is added until the concentration falls to 8%. Work out the mass of water added.

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

4.A coach journey of 240 km takes 3 hours. For this fixed distance the average speed needed is inversely proportional to the time taken. Work out the average speed needed to complete the same journey in 2 hours.

5.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.

6.Write the ratio 2 : 1/4 as a ratio of whole numbers in its simplest form.

7.A map has a scale of 1 : 25 000. A footpath measures 6 cm on the map. Work out the real length of the footpath, in kilometres.

8.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.

9.The population of a town, P thousand, is plotted against time, t years, since 2020. A tangent to the graph at t = 6 has gradient 2.5. What does this gradient represent?

10.Two straight-line graphs represent y = 2x and y = 5x. For the same value of x, where x ≠ 0, write down the ratio of the y-value on the first graph to the y-value on the second graph, in its simplest form.

11.In a fruit bowl, the number of bananas is 3/4 of the number of apples. There are 16 apples in the bowl. Write the number of apples as a fraction of the number of bananas. Give your answer in its simplest form.

12.A force of 250 N acts on an area of 0.5 m². Using pressure = force ÷ area, work out the pressure, in pascals.

13.A cup of tea is cooling. Its temperature, in °C, is plotted against time, in minutes, since it was poured. At t = 4 minutes, the gradient of the tangent to the graph is −3.2. What does this tell you about the tea at t = 4 minutes?

14.It takes 2 identical pumps 10 hours to empty a flooded basement. Working at the same rate, work out how many hours 5 of these pumps would take to empty the same basement.

15.A printer prints at a constant rate. The time taken to print a batch of forms is inversely proportional to the printer's speed, in pages per minute. Printing at 20 pages per minute takes 15 minutes. Work out how long the same batch takes to print at 25 pages per minute. Give your answer in minutes.