Lucy baked 24 croissants. ⁵₈ of the croissants were vanilla croissants. The rest were strawberry croissants. She gave an equal number of vanilla croissants and strawberry croissants away and had 2 times as many vanilla croissants as strawberry croissants left. How many croissants did she give away?

	Vanilla croissants	Strawberry croissants	Difference
Before	5x1 = 5 u	3x1 = 3 u	2x1 = 2 u
Change	- 1 u	- 1 u
After	2x2 = 4 u	1x2 = 2 u	1x2 = 2 u

Since Lucy gave away an equal number of vanilla croissants and strawberry croissants, the difference in the number of vanilla croissants and strawberry croissants remains unchanged.  Make the difference in the vanilla croissants and strawberry croissants the same.  LCM of 2 and 1 is 2.

Total number of croissants at first
= 5 u + 3 u
= 8 u

8 u = 24

1 u = 24 ÷ 8 = 3

Number of croissants that Lucy gave away
= 1 u + 1 u
= 2 u
= 2 x 3 
= 6

Answer(s): 6