Maximum area of rectangle with fixed perimeter.

The result you need is that for a rectangle with a given perimeter the square has the largest area. So with a perimeter of 28 feet, you can form a square with sides of 7 feet and area of 49 square feet.

This follows since given a positive number $A$ with $xy = A$ the sum $x + y$ is smallest when $x = y = \sqrt{A}$.

You have $2x + 2y = P \implies x + y = P/2$, and you want to find the maximum of the area, $A = xy$.

Since $x + y = P/2 \implies y = P/2 - x$, you substitute to get $A = x(P/2-x) = (P/2)x - x^2$. In your example $P = 28$, so you want to find the maximum of $A = 14x - x^2$.

Here is a slightly different approach. Let us see what happens if we use a rectangle with base $x$ and height $y$.

Then the perimeter (amount of fencing) used is $2x+2y$. This is $28$, so $2x+2y=28$, or more simply $x+y=14$.

Note that $$4xy=(x+y)^2-(x-y)^2.$$ Since $x+y=14$, it follows that $$4xy=(14)^2-(x-y)^2.$$ To make $4xy$ (and hence $xy$) as large as possible, we must subtract as little as possible from $(14)^2$. So we must make $(x-y)^2$ as small as possible. Since $(x-y)^2$ is a square, it is always $\ge 0$, and it is smallest when $x=y$, that is, when our rectangle is a square.

Does this help?

Edit: Also, is it elsewhere in the problem that it has to be a rectangle? Because, otherwise a rectangle would not be the best choice.