What number is 2 less than 17?

When solving a question like "What number is 2 less than 17?", take a close look at what it is really asking.

You have the number 17 and you are looking for a number that is 2 less than 17. In other words, if you have 17 and take away 2, then how many do you have?

You guessed it! This is a subtraction problem. 17 is the minuend and 2 is subtrahend and the answer we are looking for is the difference.

Therefore, to solve "What number is 2 less than 17?", you subtract 2 from 17 like so:

17 - 2 = 15

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