James fenced in his backyard. The perimeter of his fence is 20 feet, and the width of his yard is 2 feet wide. Use the perimeter formula to find the length of his rectangular yard in inches: P = 2L + 2W.

You're asking in the ap section, so i'll give the ap calculus-style answer. alternatively, you can find the vertex of the parabola and use the "y"-coordinate as the answer.

the maximum height can occur at a critical number, that is, a number  such that  .

the derivative of  can be calculated as follows:



find a value of  that is a zero of the derivative:


this is parabola that is opening downward; we can assume there is a maximum at  .

to find that maximum, calculate  .