2, 3, 5, 9, 17, _ What is the next number in the sequence?

I am a five-letter word under you,
Remove the first letter and I am above you,
Remove the second as well and I am around you.

Who am I?

If an earthquake is 1 point higher on the Richter Scale than another earthquake which is actually 10 times stronger, how much stronger would an earthquake be if it was just half a point higher on the Richter scale?

Manish has to secure 40% marks to pass his B.tech final exams.
He got just 40 marks and failed by 40-marks.

What is the maximum marks?

A woman is sitting in her hotel room and hears a knock at the door. She opens the door to see a man whom she’s never met before. He says, “I’m sorry, I have made a mistake, I thought this was my room.” He then goes down the corridor and into the elevator. The woman goes back into her room and calls security. What made the woman so suspicious of the man?

Five thieves looted a bank and they ran away in a car. The bank staff informed the police and they began the search of their car in their jeep. They found them on a road and chased them eventually catching them. The light that is used to fill the number plate was broken on the thieves' car. Also, the headlights of the jeep police were not working. How were the police able to catch the thieves then?

There is a place where if I stand up straight, I will still be considered sideways.

500 women soldiers are arranged in an array of ten rows and fifty columns in accordance with their respective heights. Now, the tallest woman from each row is asked to move out in the front. From them, the shortest one is labelled as Alpha. They are then asked to resume their original position.

Now, the shortest woman in each column is asked to come out in front. The tallest among them is labelled as Beta.

Can you find out if Alpha will be taller or Beta?

Why despite killing dozens of people Charley and Wilma were not punished?

Three cars are driving on a track that forms a perfect circle and is wide enough that multiple cars can pass anytime. The car that is leading in the race right now is driving at 55 MPH and the car that is trailing at the last is going at 45 MPH. The car that is in the middle is somewhere between these two speeds.
Right now, you can assume that there is a distance of x miles between the leading car and the middle car and x miles between the middle car and the last car and also, x is not equal to 0 or 1.
The cars maintain their speed till the leading car catches up with the last car and then every car stops. In this scenario, do you think of any point when the distance between any two pairs will again be x miles i.e. the pairs will be x distance apart at the same time ?