I have branches, but no fruit, trunk or leaves. What am I?

You have two strings whose only known property is that when you light one end of either string it takes exactly one hour to burn. The rate at which the strings will burn is completely random and each string is different.

How do you measure 45 minutes?

I am a type of word that is spelt incorrectly or used differently, on purpose for humour. What am I?
Hint 1: You can find me in a joke.
Hint 2: I am a play on words.

A quarter is one-fourth of a dollar but Mr. John has changed the equation as below :

DOLLAR * 4 = QUARTER

Can you replace each letter with a digit to make the above solution correct?

One night, a woman receives a call from the police. They tell her that her husband was murdered and that she should come to the crime scene as soon as possible. The woman drops the phone, shocked, and drives 20 minutes to the crime scene. As soon as she reaches the crime scene, the police arrest her and she is convicted of murder. How do the police know she committed the crime?

As we know that white starts the game of chess. Can you find the scenario shown in the picture below is possible when all the white pieces are at the original place while the black pawn is not as in the below picture?

Today is a very icy and cold morning in Newcastle. Mr Shearer, an office bus driver arrived to pick up the employees from the last stop. Shearer suddenly remembers that he needs to pick a newly joined 4miles to the north. Mr Shearer lost his direction compass, a few minutes later Shearer is able to figure that he is moving in the correct direction i.e. north. How did Shearer know that he is moving in the correct direction?

One day, Birbal got late for a function and Akbar was highly disappointed.
Please forgive me Jahanpanah. I arrived late because my child was crying and I had to calm him down, explained Birbal.
Does it take this long to placate a child? questioned the emperor. I feel that you have no idea about how to raise a child. I order you to act like a child and I will act like your father to show you how you should have dealt with your child. Come on! Ask me all that he asked from you.
Father, I want a cow, said Birbal.
The emperor quickly ordered one of the servants to bring a cow to the kingdom.
I want to drink its milk, now, now, now! said Birbal, imitating the voice of his child.
Akbar asked his servants to milk the cow and give to Birbal.
The servants quickly milked the cow and offered the milk to Birbal. He sipped in a little and then gave the bowl to the emperor.
As Birbal put up the next demand that was put up by his child a few hours ago, the emperor was stunned and left the room.
What did Birbal say?

A few friends are enjoying their sea voyage in a boat full of apples. On the way, they felt hungry and thus decided to eat the apples. Together, they ate two dozen of apples. When they have eaten the apples, will there be any change in the water level?

What 5-letter word typed in all capital letters can be read the same upside down?