Ivan had an equal number of strawberry wafers, cream wafers and vanila wafers. After he ate 34 strawberry wafers, some cream wafers and vanila wafers, there were 52 wafers left. The number of cream wafers he ate was four times the number of vanila wafers he ate. The number of cream wafers left was 18 more than the number of strawberry wafers left. How many strawberry wafers were there at first?

	Strawberry wafers	Cream wafers	Vanila wafers	Total wafers
Before	1 p + 34	1 p + 4 u + 18	1 p + 4 u + 18
Change	- 34	- 4 u	- 1 u
After	1 p	1 p + 18	1 p + 18 + 1 u	52

Number of cream wafers and strawberry wafers was equal at first.

1 p + 4 u + 18 = 1 p + 34
4 u = 34 - 18
4 u = 16

1 u = 16 ÷ 4 = 4

Total number of wafers in the end
= 1 p + 1 p + 18 + 1 p + 18 + 4
= 1 p + 1 p + 1 p + 18 + 18 + 4
= 3 p + 40

3 p + 40 = 52
3 p = 52 - 40
3 p = 12

1 p = 12 ÷ 3 = 4

Number of strawberry wafers at first
= 1 p + 34
= 4 + 34
= 38

Answer(s): 38