sarah is building a dog house. she has created the rectangular house and just needs to build the roof to fit. she designs a triangle-shaped roof by using two sheets of wood, forming a 90 angle at the peak. looking at the front of the dog house, the distance from either wall is 5 feet across. If the triangle portion is symmetrical, what is the distance from the top of the wall portion to the highest part of the triangle peak? Round your answer to the nearest tenth

1 answer

To solve this problem, we need to visualize the triangle-shaped roof. Since the roof forms a right angle (90 degrees) at the peak and is symmetrical, we can split the triangle down the middle.

Given that the distance from either wall is 5 feet across, that means that the base of the triangle is a total distance of 10 feet (5 feet from one wall to the peak and 5 feet from the peak to the other wall).

In a right triangle, the height can be calculated if we know both the base and the heights along the sides. However, for this situation, we are only interested in the height from the top of the wall to the peak of the triangle.

Let's denote the height of the triangle (the distance we need to find) as \(h\). The triangle can be split into two right triangles where the base is \(5\) feet (half the length of the base) and \(h\) is the height we are trying to find.

Since we don't know the length of the sides (the sloping roof) or the angles, but we can visualize that the overall height is a specific relationship to the base length.

Over triangular (right-angled) properties, the specific height from the walls to the peak can be deduced as:

Given the simple case when it's strictly vertical without needing further calculations in typical rectangular formations, and if considering their vertical structures:

The dimensions give us direct attractive results as they also relate clearly through Pythagorean expedition if no further angle specifications are remarked for other slops.

To simplify, if we consider this a basic construction with two equal height variations forming triangular symmetry:

Thus, the distance from the top of the wall to the peak of the triangle can mathematically lead us toward a direct factor in standard proportions.

Given that the roof forms a symmetrical triangle centered and sharp at height towards a 90 degree,

The height \(h\) can be visualized directly as pertaining through distribution above half lengths, assuming maximum structural common sense ratios of typical doghouse designs, contributing to standard height constants leading intuitively to projection based on full angles concluded raising a standard roof height boost.

Therefore: Assuming a standard roofing elevation, often based on symmetry, the standard projection of \( h \) can result respectively in an attractive visual height-position schema confirming:

Distance from top of wall to peak = 5 feet

Thus the height from the top of the wall to the highest peak would be equal to: 5.0 feet to the nearest tenth.