Area of largest inscribed rectangle in an ellipse. Can I take the square of the area to simplify calculations? So say I have an ellipse defined like this:
$$\frac{x^2}{9} + \frac{y^2}{4} = 1$$
I have to find the largest possible area of an inscribed rectangle.
So the area ($A$) of a rectangle is $2x2y=4xy$. Also we can redefine $y$ in terms of $x$:
$$\frac{y^2}{4} = 1 - \frac{x^2}{9}$$
$$y^2 = 4 - \frac{4x^2}{9}$$
$$y = \sqrt{4 - \frac{4x^2}{9}}$$
So the area function is now:
$$A=4x \cdot \sqrt{4 - \frac{4x^2}{9}}$$
$$A' = \frac{4x}{2 \cdot \frac{-8x}{9}} + \sqrt{4 - \frac{4x^2}{9}} \cdot 4$$
So this track seems too difficult, so I'd like to find another approach. Can I square the area first, find the derivative of that to solve for $x$?
So the $\text{Area} = 4x \cdot \sqrt{4 - \frac{4x^2}{9}}$
Is this valid?
$$\text{Area}^2 = 16x^2 \cdot \left(4 - \frac{4x^2}{9}\right)$$
$$= 64x^2 - \frac{64x^4}{9}$$
Derivative: 
$$ \frac{d}{dx} \text{Area}^2 = 128x - \frac{256x^3}{9}$$
$$128x\left(1-\frac{2x^2}{9}\right)$$
So critical values: $x = 0, \frac{3}{\sqrt{2}}$
because the derivative equals $0$ when:
$$2x^2 = 9$$
$$x = \frac{3}{\sqrt{2}}$$
Plugging this value of $x$ into $y$ we get that $y = \sqrt{2}$ so the $\text{Area}$ is $3$.
Is this valid? If so why? Does squaring not cause any problems?

We all know that the quadrangle of maximal area inscribed in a disc is a square, and that this square covers ${2\over\pi}$ of the area of the disc. Your ellipse has semiaxes $2$ and $3$, hence area $6\pi$. The largest rectangle inscribed in this ellipse therefore has area
$$\leq{2\over\pi}\cdot 6\pi=12\ ,$$
and this value is  attained for a suitable axis-aligned rectangle.
