Question

1) A rancher wants to enclose two rectangular areas near a river, one for sheep and one for cattle. There is 240m of fencing available. Express the area of the enclosures as a function of its dimension.

Answer 1

You have to be more specific to describe the rectangles.
In this type of question, there is usually some kind of common side, or sides that are not needed.
In your case, the river might make one side to the rectangle unnecessary.
But, ...
Is there a common side to the two rectangles. ???
....

Answer 2

That is the question, it can be solved in multiple ways from what I understand.

Answer 3

So , tell me which way you want it to be.

Answer 4

No there is no common side (lets say.)

Thanks by the way.