Ratio, proportion and rates of change worksheet — GCSE Higher

1.A garden centre sells two mathematically similar sacks of grass seed. The amount of lawn a sack can treat is proportional to the volume of seed inside it. The smaller sack is 20 cm tall and treats a lawn of area 30 m². The larger sack is 40 cm tall. A gardener needs to treat a lawn with an area of 500 m² using only the larger sacks. Work out the minimum number of larger sacks needed.

2.A machine fills bottles at a constant rate. It fills 18 bottles in 3 minutes. Working at the same rate, work out how many bottles the machine fills in 8 minutes.

3.The number of euros, e, received is directly proportional to the number of pounds, p, exchanged. Exchanging £40 gives 46 euros. Work out how many euros are received for £65, giving your answer to the nearest euro.

4.Ffion is paid £11.20 per hour. She works 6 hours on Monday and 4.5 hours on Tuesday. Work out her total pay for the two days.

5.A concrete block exerts a force of 45 N on the ground through a base with an area of 0.05 m². Work out the pressure on the ground, in N/m².

6.A photo is enlarged so that its new width is 1.4 times its original width. Write the multiplier that would scale the new width back down to the original width, as a fraction in its simplest form.

7.In a science lesson Priya has 10 litres of a solution that is 30% salt. She adds water to make a solution that is 20% salt. Work out how many litres of water she adds.

8.Write the ratio 3/4 : 1/2 as a ratio of whole numbers in its simplest form.

9.A rectangular room is drawn on a plan with a scale of 1 : 50. On the plan, the room measures 8 cm by 6 cm. Work out the real area of the room, in square metres.

10.A charity collects donations from adults and children in the ratio 5:2. Altogether, £238 is collected. Work out how much more the adults donate than the children.

11.Two quantities y and z are each in direct proportion to x, and are given by y = 3x and z = 7x. Work out the difference between the value of y and the value of z when x = 4.

12.In a school choir the ratio of boys to girls is 3:4. When 6 more boys join the choir, the ratio of boys to girls becomes 1:1. Work out how many girls are in the choir.

13.A firework rocket's height above the ground, in metres, t seconds after launch, is modelled by h = 30t − 5t². Use a chord between t = 1 second and t = 3 seconds to estimate the instantaneous rate of change of the height at t = 2 seconds, in m/s.

14.Two quantities x and y are in the ratio x : y = 2 : 5, and y = kx for a constant k. Work out the value of k.

15.A cyclist's distance travelled, in metres, is recorded against time, in seconds. From t = 3 to t = 8 the distance increases from 12 m to 32 m. A tangent to the distance–time graph at t = 6 has gradient 3. Work out the average speed of the cyclist over the interval from t = 3 to t = 8.