A father's child, a mother's child, yet no one's son.

Who am I?

Find the next number in the sequence

5 12 24 36 ?

The warden meets with 23 new prisoners when they arrive. He tells them, "You may meet today and plan a strategy. But after today, you will be in isolated cells and will have no communication with one another.

"In the prison is a switch room, which contains two light switches labeled 1 and 2, each of which can be in either up or the down position. I am not telling you their present positions. The switches are not connected to anything.

"After today, from time to time whenever I feel so inclined, I will select one prisoner at random and escort him to the switch room. This prisoner will select one of the two switches and reverse its position. He must flip one switch when he visits the switch room, and may only flip one of the switches. Then he'll be led back to his cell.

"No one else will be allowed to alter the switches until I lead the next prisoner into the switch room. I'm going to choose prisoners at random. I may choose the same guy three times in a row, or I may jump around and come back. I will not touch the switches, if I wanted you dead you would already be dead.

"Given enough time, everyone will eventually visit the switch room the same number of times as everyone else. At any time, anyone may declare to me, 'We have all visited the switch room.'

"If it is true, then you will all be set free. If it is false, and somebody has not yet visited the switch room, you will all die horribly. You will be carefully monitored, and any attempt to break any of these rules will result in instant death to all of you"

What is the strategy they come up with so that they can be free?

Christina makes tasty toast in a small pan. After toasting one side of a slice, she turns it over. Each side takes 30 seconds. The pan can only hold two slices.
How can she toast both sides of three slices in 1 & 1/2 instead of 2 minutes?

A lion and its tamer are standing inside a cage that measures 1 unit in radius. Both of them can effortlessly run at the speed of 1 unit maximum.

1) Suppose the lion is hungry, will he be able to eat up the tamer?
2) If yes, how long can the tamer survive?

Before the start of the car race, John and Jacob have the same amount of fuel in their car. With this fuel, John can drive for 4 hours while Jacob can drive five hours.
After a time they realize that the amount of fuel left in John's car is 1/4th of the fuel in Jacob's.

For how long they are racing?

What occurs twice in a week, once in a year but never in a day?

What is black when you buy it, red when you use it, and gray when you throw it away?

A hen, a dog, and a cat are stolen. Three suspects are arrested named Robin, Steve, and Tim. The police are sure that all of them stole one of the animals but they don't know who stole which animal.

Sherlock Holmes is appointed to identify and is provided with the following statements from the investigation.

Robin - Tim stole the hen
Steve - Tim stole the dog
Tim - Both Robin and Steve are lying. I neither stole a hen nor a dog.

Sherlock is somehow able to deduce that the man who stole the cat is telling a lie and the man who stole the hen is telling truth.

Can you help him find out who stole which animal?

The chance of Mr John winning the lottery is 10%. All participants lined up and Mr John is 4th in the row. The first three participants lose the lottery.

What is the chance of Mr John now?