Who is generally closer to the kids, mom or dad?

(it's a funny riddle)

A tree doubled in height each year until it reached its maximum height over the course of ten years. How many years did it take for the tree to reach half its maximum height?

A small town is visited by an ice-cream truck every day. On the first day of February, the truck visits as usual and 5 children, one from each of the first 5 houses on the street buys an ice cream that is of the different flavor from each other along with a completely different topping.

Go through the details below and find out which child lives in which house and bought which ice-cream flavor with which topping:

1. Jim lives between the child who bought the Raspberry topping and the child who bought mango ice cream.

2. Joyce, whose house has an even number, bought the cherry topping. Nancy does not live next to Joyce.

3. The blackcurrant ice cream had no topping.

4. The child who lives in house number 2 had the butterscotch ice cream. The child in house number 3 did not have chocolate ice cream.

5. Mike had banana ice cream. He hates banana cherry.

6. The child who had the cashew topping lives in house number 5. Dustin does not live in house number 4.

Please note that the odd numbered houses and the even numbered houses are located on the exactly opposite sides of the street.

What am I?

A research team went to a village somewhere between the jungles of Africa. Luckily for them, they reached the day when quite an interesting custom was to be performed. The custom was performed once a year as they confirmed and was performed in order to collect the taxes from every male of the region.

The taxes were to be paid in the form of grains. Everyone must pay pounds of grain equaling his respective age. This means a 20-year-old will have to pay 20 pounds of grain and a 30-year-old will pay 30 pounds of grain and so on.

The chief who collects the tax has 7 weights and a large 2-pan scale to weigh. But there is another custom that the chief can weigh only three of the seven weights.

Can you find out the weights of the seven weights? Also, what is the maximum age of the man that can be weighed for the payment of taxes?

Out of the nine cats that you can see in the picture, there are only two that are completely identical. Can you find them out?

It is a six-letter word.
The first four letters are me.
The second and last letters are the same.
The fourth second and last letter is payment.

Who is it?

With pointed fangs I sit and wait; with piercing force I crunch out fate; grabbing victims, proclaiming might; physically joining with a single bite. What am I?

P is the father of Q and S is the son of R. T is the brother of P and has a daughter U. If R is the sister of P, then what is the relation between U, Q and S?

I have an eye but still cannot see.

Who am I?