A swan sits at the center of a perfectly circular lake. At an edge of the lake stands a ravenous monster waiting to devour the swan. The monster can not enter the water, but it will run around the circumference of the lake to try to catch the swan as soon as it reaches the shore. The monster moves at 4 times the speed of the swan, and it will always move in the direction along the shore that brings it closer to the swan the quickest. Both the swan and the the monster can change directions in an instant.
The swan knows that if it can reach the lake's shore without the monster right on top of it, it can instantly escape into the surrounding forest.

How can the swan successfully escape?

why number 8549176320 is one of a kind?

You are in a room that has three switches and a closed door. The switches control three light bulbs on the other side of the door. Once you open the door, you may never touch the switches again. How can you definitively tell which switch is connected to each of the light bulbs?

A thief is convicted in Mexico. He gets the death penalty. The judge allows him to say the last sentence to determine how the penalty will be carried out. If the thief lies, he will be hanged, if he speaks the truth he will be beheaded. The thief tells the last sentence and to everybody's surprise some minutes later he is set free because the judge cannot determine his penalty. What did the thief say?

There is a wide field of corn. A goose finds its way into the field and starts running. Can you find out till which point the goose can run into the field?

Is the statement valid that it does not matter how much older a sibling is, eventually the younger one will be half as old as the older one?

The doctor advised his patient to take a tablet after every fifteen minutes. He gave him five tablets in total.

How much time will he take to have all the five tablets?

Today is John's birthday.
A year ago, John had five candles and he lit all the candles except the one at the last.
Now he is going to light all the candles.

How old is John Today?

(He is not five today.....)

A spaceship was lost. The detective was given a piece of paper. This was the location of the spaceship! This is what the slip had scribbled on it:
Juice, Umbrella, Potato, Ice, Tomato, Elephant, Rice.

Where is the spaceship?

There are 100 bulbs in a room. 100 strangers have been accumulated in the adjacent room. The first one goes and lights up every bulb. The second one goes and switches off all the even-numbered bulbs - second, fourth, sixth... and so on. The third one goes and reverses the current position of every third bulb (third, sixth, ninth? and so on.) i.e. if the bulb is lit, he switches it off and if the bulb is off, he switches it on. All the 100 strangers progress similarly.

After the last person has done what he wanted, which bulbs will be lit and which ones will be switched off?