two less than 2 times a number is 20. what is the number?

Answer 1

Let's call the number we're trying to find "x".

According to the problem, "two less than 2 times a number" can be written as:

2x - 2

And we're told that this expression is equal to 20. So we can set up an equation:

2x - 2 = 20

To solve for x, we need to isolate it on one side of the equation. We can start by adding 2 to both sides:

2x - 2 + 2 = 20 + 2

Simplifying the left side, we get:

2x = 22

Finally, we can solve for x by dividing both sides by 2:

x = 11

Therefore, the number we're looking for is 11.