Can you decipher the following common phrase?

T M C
A U O
H S M
W T E

What number comes next in the series?

5 15 5 18 5 24 14 20 _

It's pretty hard to give up.
If you remove a part of it, you will be left with a bit.
Even if you remove another part, the bit still remains.
Remove one more and it still remains.

What is it?

A chess tournament is taking place on knock-out terms (the one who loses the match is out of the game).
(a) If 10 matches are played in total, how many players participated?
(b) If 20 players took part in the tournament, how many matches were played?

Two friends decide to get together; so they start riding bikes towards each other. They plan to meet halfway. Each is riding at 6 MPH. They live 36 miles apart. One of them has a pet carrier pigeon and it starts flying the instant the friends start traveling. The pigeon flies back and forth at 18 MPH between the 2 friends until the friends meet.

How many miles does the pigeon travel?

In a secret society, a buried chamber can be accessed only via a secret password. The password is seven characters long and comprises of just letters and numbers.

You find a code that can help you in cracking the password. The code says "You force heaven to be empty".

Can you deduce the password from that?

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?

Consider this: Arnold Schwarzenegger has a big one. Michael J. Fox has a small one. Prince doesn’t have one. The Pope has one but never uses it. Bill Clinton has one and uses it all the time. What is it?

What is the fewest number of coins that would be required in order to make sure each and every coin touches exactly three other coins?

You and your two friends are working in a multinational company. How can you three find out the average salary of you all without disclosing your own salary to the other two?