Question

If the pitch of a roof is 1/4, how many feet in the horizontal direction correspond to a rise of 3ft?

Answer 1

This is one way, there are others:

Slope is rise/run

slope of 1/4 means: it rises 1 for every 4 it runs


1 rise / 4 run = 3 rise / x run {set up a proportion}
1(x) = 4(3) {cross-multiplied}
x = 12 {multiplied 1 by x and 4 by 3}

horizontal (run) = 12 ft