Jacob wants to build a rectangular enclosure for his animals. One side of the pen will be against the barn,so he needs no fence on that side.
Let w be the width of the enclosure (perpendicular to the barn) and let l be the length of the enclosure (parallel to the barn).
one side of the length is not counted for perimeter because one side of length will be against the barn.
Perimeter = 400 ft
Perimeter of rectangle = L + W + W
400 = L + 2W
L = 400 - 2W
Area = L * W
Replace L by 400 - 2W
A(W) = (400 - 2W) * W
Now we find out x coordinate of vertex to find the width that maximize the area
a= -2 and b = 400
The width w would maximize the area is w = 100ft
To find maximum area we plug in 100 for W in A(W)
the maximum area is 20,000 square feet
