Math help :-)

[Bob Martin]

If you've got an Android phone then I recommend this :

[Dave W]

Even easier, as sin15 is pretty much 1/4 (and how accurate is your 15 anyway), X is E/4 higher than Y.

[The Medway Handyman]

Sorry, "Z" would be the fabric/hypotenuse.

The 1 to 4 m would be the second longest side of the triangle, the third/shortest side of the triangle would be the height difference.

Reason I was going to do a spreadsheet is so I could have a handy paper chart for site use. No Google involved.

[The Medway Handyman]

No, horizontally.

I haven't explained this clearly enough. My bad.

The awning is bolted to the wall & the front edge when extended, is lower. The canvas is at a 15 degree slope. In some cases the front of the awning has to be at a certain height to miss an obstacle.

[The Medway Handyman]

Thanks - that seems to work!

[Dave W]

As you liked Farmer Giles's solution, I now change my first solution to X = 0.27E above Y, where E now represents the horizontal distance of the front from the wall.

[Farmer Giles]

Glad to help.

I'd be grateful if you could now do me a favour. Please call it 'maths', and not the irritating Americanism 'math'.

[The Medway Handyman]

I stand corrected :-)

[ARW]

When I helped fit the awning at my parents house I let my Dad "borrow" the SDS drill that I bought him for Christmas:-)

[Vir Campestris]

This is arithmetic.

Andy

[fred]

Not trigonometry then B-)

[Tim Streater]

Well a bit of trig (which is Maths) was involved to work up an equation, but sticking the numbers in and cranking the handle of the calculator is arithmetic.

[Farmer Giles]

Trigonometry is maths. The final calculation is arguably arithmetic, but the process that defined the calculation is definitely mathematics.