Question

in 2005 the number of federal hazardous waste sites in California was 2 less than twice the number of sides in Washington how many hazardous waste sites were there in Washington if they're worth 42 such sites in California

Answer 1

Let's just take each bit of information separately first:

Let x = number of waste sites in Washington

Number of sites in California = 2x - 2

We know that there were 42 sites in California, so we can then solve for x:

$42=2x-2$
$44=2x$
$22=x$

So now we know that there were 22 waste sites in Washington.

Answer 2

Let $c$ be the number of California sites and $w$ be the number of Washington sites.

$c = 2w - 2$

$c = 42$

$42 = 2w - 2$

$44 = 2w$

$w=22$