
Answer:
 6.83 units
Step-by-step explanation:
Let the height of the original pyramid be represented by h. Then the cut off top has a height of (h -2). The scale factor for the area is the square of the scale factor for height, so we have ...
 (height ratio)^2 = 1/2
 ((h -2)/h)^2 = 1/2
 (h -2)√2 = h . . . . . . square root; multiply by h√2
 h(√2 -1) = 2√2 . . . . add 2√2 -h
 h = (2√2)/(√2 -1) ≈ 6.8284 . . . units
The altitude of the original pyramid is about 6.83 units.