Carl had an equal number of strawberry macarons, cream macarons and vanila macarons. After he ate 39 strawberry macarons, some cream macarons and vanila macarons, there were 84 macarons left. The number of cream macarons he ate was twice the number of vanila macarons he ate. The number of cream macarons left was 23 more than the number of strawberry macarons left. How many strawberry macarons were there at first?

	Strawberry macarons	Cream macarons	Vanila macarons	Total macarons
Before	1 p + 39	1 p + 2 u + 23	1 p + 2 u + 23
Change	- 39	- 2 u	- 1 u
After	1 p	1 p + 23	1 p + 23 + 1 u	84

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

1 p + 2 u + 23 = 1 p + 39
2 u = 39 - 23
2 u = 16

1 u = 16 ÷ 2 = 8

Total number of macarons in the end
= 1 p + 1 p + 23 + 1 p + 23 + 8
= 1 p + 1 p + 1 p + 23 + 23 + 8
= 3 p + 54

3 p + 54 = 84
3 p = 84 - 54
3 p = 30

1 p = 30 ÷ 3 = 10

Number of strawberry macarons at first
= 1 p + 39
= 10 + 39
= 49

Answer(s): 49