What is the difference of the polynomials?

B.
The minus sign applies to all terms in the right hand parenthesis. So the x^4 and x^2 drop out. 2x^3+2x remains. If we rewrite the equation without parenthesis, apply the sign in front of the parenthesis to all terms like so: x⁴+x³+x²+x - x⁴ - -x³ - x² - -x Now, realizing that - - = +, you can see that they flip sign and you get: x³+x³+x+x = 2x³ + 2x (I already removed x⁴-x⁴=0 and x²-x²=0)