Question

An architect designs a house that is 12 m wide. The rafters holding up the roof are equal length and meet at an angle of 68°. The rafters extend 0.6 m beyond the supporting wall. How long are the rafters?

Hi - I was wondering if you could help me with this question. I'm not sure what they mean by rafters extending beyond the support wall and how I would be able to figure out the length if it extends.

Answer 1

base of right triangle = 12/2 = 6 m
angle at peak = 68/2 = 34 deg

we need the hypotenuse then add .6 m to each rafter
sin 34 = 6/L
L = 10.7
add .6
11.3 meters per rafter

Answer 2

Thank you for clarifying! Also appreciate how quickly you helped me. Very good math skills :)