Ben had an equal number of chocolate puffs, matcha puffs and strawberry puffs. After he ate 36 chocolate puffs, some matcha puffs and strawberry puffs, there were 46 puffs left. The number of matcha puffs he ate was four times the number of strawberry puffs he ate. The number of matcha puffs left was 16 more than the number of chocolate puffs left. How many chocolate puffs were there at first?

	Chocolate puffs	Matcha puffs	Strawberry puffs	Total puffs
Before	1 p + 36	1 p + 4 u + 16	1 p + 4 u + 16
Change	- 36	- 4 u	- 1 u
After	1 p	1 p + 16	1 p + 16 + 1 u	46

Number of matcha puffs and chocolate puffs was equal at first.

1 p + 4 u + 16 = 1 p + 36
4 u = 36 - 16
4 u = 20

1 u = 20 ÷ 4 = 5

Total number of puffs in the end
= 1 p + 1 p + 16 + 1 p + 16 + 5
= 1 p + 1 p + 1 p + 16 + 16 + 5
= 3 p + 37

3 p + 37 = 46
3 p = 46 - 37
3 p = 9

1 p = 9 ÷ 3 = 3

Number of chocolate puffs at first
= 1 p + 36
= 3 + 36
= 39

Answer(s): 39