The height of a roof - Math Central

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Question from carl:

Width of my roof I am building is 5M at baseline, and the pitch is 40%.
What will the height be, and how can I work this out in the future.

Thanks for your help.
Carl.

Hi Carl,

roof

I let the height be h metres, then h/5 = tan(40^o) and hence h = 5 × tan(40^o) m. Make sure your calculator is set to degrees and use it to find tan(40^o). Multiply by 5 to obtain the height in metres. I got 4.2 m.

Penny

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