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Help your students prepare for their Maths GCSE with this free rate of change worksheet of 26 questions and answers
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The rate of change of a variable is a measure of how quickly that variable changes over time. A good example of this is acceleration, which is a measure of how quickly an object’s speed changes over time.
If we draw a graph of how a variable changes over time, for example a speed-time graph, the rate of change is represented by the gradient, or slope of the line, sometimes called the unit rate. A constant rate of change is shown by a straight line and if the variable doesn’t change for a period of time, this is represented by a horizontal line, with gradient 0.
From a graph, we can calculate the average rate of change between two points by calculating the slope of a line drawn between the two points.
When the rate of change is not constant, the graph will show a curved line. We can estimate the rate of change at any given point in time by estimating the gradient of the line at that point. An example of a real life graph with a non constant rate of change is the money in a savings account with a compound interest rate. The y intercept would represent the initial value, the initial amount of money in the account, and the rate of change would increase each year.
Note that the gradient of a line between two ordered pairs (x1, y2) and (x2,y2) is found using the gradient, or slope formula: (y2-y1)/(x2-x1). The slope-intercept form of a straight line is written as y=mx+c, where m is the gradient (the rate of change) and c is the y-intercept.
Looking forward, students can then progress to additional rate of change worksheets and other ratio and proportion worksheets, for example a ratio worksheet or a simplifying and equivalent ratios worksheet.
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