Ratio, proportion and rates of change worksheet — GCSE Higher

1.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.

2.A fixed job of fitting a solar array is shared between installers, and the time taken is inversely proportional to the number of installers working on it at once. With 4 installers the job takes 18 hours. Construct the equation connecting time T and number of installers n, then work out how long it would take with 6 installers.

3.A metal sample has a mass of 342.6 g and a volume of 18 cm³. Work out the density of the sample, in g/cm³, to 1 decimal place.

4.An architect builds a scale model of a staircase before construction. The model is mathematically similar to the real staircase, at a scale of 1 : 10. The model covers a floor area of 0.4 m² on the plan. Work out the floor area the real staircase will cover, giving your answer in m².

5.A printer prints pages at a constant rate. It prints 45 pages in 6 minutes. Work out how many pages it prints in 10 minutes.

6.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.

7.A worker is paid £13.20 per hour. Work out this rate of pay in pence per minute.

8.A laptop bag has a mass of 2.4 kg. A school bag has a mass of 3.6 kg. Write the mass of the laptop bag as a fraction of the mass of the school bag, giving your answer in its simplest form.

9.A novel has 312 pages. A comic has 48 pages. Write the number of pages in the novel as a fraction of the number of pages in the comic, giving your answer in its simplest form.

10.A shop's daily profit, in pounds, is plotted against the price charged for an item, in pounds. A tangent to the profit graph at a price of £15 passes through the points (12, 540) and (18, 480). Work out the instantaneous rate of change of profit with respect to price at £15, and state whether profit is increasing or decreasing there.

11.A car travels 180 miles in 3 hours. A lorry travels 160 miles in 4 hours. Write the car's average speed as a fraction of the lorry's average speed, giving your answer in its simplest form.

12.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?

13.A baker uses 450 g of flour and 300 g of butter in a batch of pastry. Write the mass of butter as a fraction of the total mass of flour and butter, in its simplest form.

14.A sculptor makes two mathematically similar statues. The smaller statue is 20 cm tall and 80 ml of varnish covers its surface. The larger statue is 50 cm tall. Work out how much varnish is needed to cover the surface of the larger statue.

15.The number of subscribers to a streaming app, in thousands, is plotted against time, in months since launch. A tangent to the graph at t = 6 months has gradient 4.8. A tangent at t = 18 months has gradient 1.1. A manager claims the app is growing faster at 18 months than it was at 6 months. Work out how the growth rate has changed, and decide whether the manager is correct.