Rearranging formulasOne and two steps
Name: Date:
Rearrange each formula to make the named letter the subject.
1V = 13Bhfor h
2V = πr²hfor h
3A = 12bhfor h
4F = mafor m
5y − k = m(x − h)for m
6A = 12pqfor p
7A = 12(a + b)hfor h
8p = mvfor m
Rearranging formulas worksheets
A formula is only useful in the direction you need it. These free printable worksheets take thirty formulas a course actually uses and ask for the letter you do not have, with the working set out the way a book sets it.
If they get stuck
Rearranging formulas
The answer key prints on a separate page.
What's on this sheet
Rearranging is solving with letters instead of numbers, and that is the whole idea a student has to accept. Solving 3x = 12 divides both sides by 3; solving A = bh for b divides both sides by h. Nothing new happens — but the answer is an expression rather than a number, and there is no arithmetic to check it against, which is why the method has to be trusted rather than confirmed.
Why this sheet works
The formulas are real ones. Area and perimeter, d = rt, simple interest, Ohm’s law, kinetic energy, Fahrenheit to Celsius: a page of them teaches the formulas as well as the algebra, and a student who meets I = Prt here recognises it later. Made-up equations would test the same manoeuvre and teach none of that.
How this one works
Solve V = ⅓Bh for h
V = ⅓Bh
3V = Bh
= h
h =
- V = ⅓Bh is the volume of a cone or pyramid. To make h the subject, undo everything that is being done to it.
- Undo the next operation on both sides. V = ⅓Bh becomes 3V = Bh.
- Divide both sides by what multiplies it. 3V = Bh becomes 3V/B = h.
- Write it with the letter you want on the left. 3V/B = h becomes h = 3V/B.