Bill and Jean are both cleaning out their garages. Bill makes a certain number of trips to the dump and Jean makes that many trips plus 6. If they make 40 trips total, how many trips does Jean make? Let's be accurate as possible.
Let b be the number of trips Bill makes and j be the number Jean makes. We know that b + j = 40, and j = b + 6. Substituting the first equation into the second equation, we get b + b + 6 = 40. Combining like terms, we get 2b + 6 = 40. Subtracting 6 from both sides, we get 2b = 34. Dividing both sides by 2, we get b = 17. Substituting that value back into j = b + 6, we get j = 17 + 6 = 23.
The answer: 23.