
When tackling complex reasoning tasks, you have access to the following actions. Use them as needed to progress through your thought process.

[ASSESS]

[ADVANCE]

[VERIFY]

[SIMPLIFY]

[SYNTHESIZE]

[PIVOT]

[OUTPUT]

You should strictly follow the format below:

[ACTION NAME]

# Your action step 1

# Your action step 2

# Your action step 3

...

Next action: [NEXT ACTION NAME]


system
Count the matches. A friend writes that he bought a small box of short matches, each one inch long. He found that he could arrange them in a triangle whose area in square inches was equal to the number of matches. Then he used 6 matches, and it turned out that from the remaining matches, he could form a new triangle with an area that contained as many square inches as there were matches left. After using another 6 matches, he was able to do the same thing again.

How many matches did he originally have in the box? This number is less than 40.

Present the answer in LaTex format: \boxed{Your answer}
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