What is the next number in this series?

4,12,84,3612....

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?

There are 20 people in an empty, square room. Each person has full sight of the entire room and everyone in it without turning his head or body, or moving in any way (other than the eyes). Where can you place an apple so that all but one person can see it?

15 caves are arranged in a circle at the temple of doom. One of these caves has the treasure of gems and wealth. Each day the treasure keepers can move the treasure to an adjacent cave or can keep it in the same cave. Every day two treasure seekers visit the place and have enough time to enter any two caves of their choice.

How do the treasure seekers ensure that they find the treasure in the minimum number of possible days?

Queen Elizabeth organised a royal party.

To Avoid uninvited guest royal family set a password.
Jack (an uninvited person) plan to enter the party. He stand nearby the door.

First guest comes, the security person said 'twelve' and guest replied with six.
Second guest comes , the security person said 'six' and guest replied with 'three'.

Jack thought is enough and he walked to the entry point. The security person said 'eight' , Jack replied smilingly 'four'.
He was immediately thrown out of the party. why ?

You need to climb ten stairs. At every stair, you can either take one step up or you can jump two steps up.

In how many different ways you can climb 10 stairs?

Replace the question mark with the correct number.

2 + 2= 4
3 + 3= 18
4 + 4= 48
5 + 5= ?

Using eight eights and addition only, can you make 1000?

In the addition below, all digits have been replaced by letters. Equal letters represent equal digits and different letters represent different digits.
ABCABA
BBDCAA
ABEABB
ABDBAA
------- +
AAFGBDH
What does the complete addition look like in digits?

Which is heavier: a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers?