Ratio, proportion and rates of change worksheet — GCSE Higher

1.The speed of a car is given by v = d ÷ t. A car travels 180 km in 3 hours. Work out the average speed of the car in km/h.

2.Two cars travel at constant speeds. Car A travels 150 km in 3 hours. Car B travels 180 km in 4 hours. Which car is faster, and what is its speed?

3.A kettle uses 2.1 kWh of energy. A toaster uses 0.9 kWh of energy. Write the energy used by the kettle as a fraction of the energy used by the toaster, giving your answer in its simplest form.

4.The volume of fuel remaining in a storage tank, in thousands of litres, is plotted against time, in hours, since a leak was detected. A tangent to the graph at t = 2 hours has gradient −8.75 thousand litres per hour. A tangent at t = 8 hours has gradient −3.5 thousand litres per hour. Work out by what factor the instantaneous rate of change is greater in size at t = 2 hours than at t = 8 hours.

5.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.

6.The temperature of a chemical reaction, in °C, is modelled by T = 80 − 6t + 0.5t², where t is the time in minutes after the reaction starts. Which of these four statements about the reaction between t = 2 and t = 6 minutes is correct?

7.Two cars leave the same point at the same time and travel in opposite directions. One travels at 80 km/h and the other at 60 km/h. Work out how long it takes until the cars are 350 km apart.

8.The density of a liquid is 0.92 g/cm³. Work out the density of the liquid in kg/m³.

9.Amelia uses 2 kg of flour to bake 5 cakes. Using the same recipe, work out how many cakes she can bake with 6 kg of flour.

10.To make orange paint, red and yellow paint are mixed in the ratio 6:15. Write the amount of red paint as a fraction of the amount of yellow paint, in its simplest form.

11.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.

12.A map has a scale of 1 : 25 000. Two towns are 5 km apart in real life. Work out the distance between the towns on the map, in centimetres.

13.A train journey takes 2 hours 15 minutes. A bus journey to the same place takes 3 hours 45 minutes. Write the time for the train journey as a fraction of the time for the bus journey, giving your answer in its simplest form.

14.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.

15.A mortar mix is made from sand and cement in the ratio 5 : 3. Write the ratio of sand to the total mix in its simplest form.