Polynomials

First, have you looked on Khan Academy for videos/articles on this subject? You may find it in Algebra I -> Polynomials or another topic on Khan Academy.

I will give you a push in the right direction, as a hint.

Suppose you have (ax^2 + bx + c)*(dx^2 + ex + f), where

a, b, c, d, e, and f are coefficients. If you don't know what a coefficient is, please let me know.

a, b, c, d, e, and f each may be positive, negative, or zero. If b, c, e, or f is negative, the plus sign preceding it will be negative. If a, b, d, or e is equal to 1 (one), it may be omitted, making the term x^2 or x. If a, b, d, or e is equal to -1 (negative one), the 1 may be omitted, making the term -x^2 or -x.

In your original problem, a = 1, b = -2, c = 1, d = 1, e = 1, f = 2.

Now, here is how to approach this. Each term in the first polynomial multiplies each term in the second polynomial. If there are three terms in each, this means that there are 9 total multiplications. But there won't be 9 terms in the final answer. There will actually be 5. The answer will be of the form:

(ad)x^4 + (ae+cd)x^3 + (af+be+cd)x^2 + (bf+ce)x + cf

I hope you can take it from here.

Thank you, again. This is very helpful.