Find the next number in the sequence

5 12 24 36 ?

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?

A woman lives in a Tall building thirty-six floors high and served by several elevators which stop at each floor going up and down. Each morning she leaves her apartment and goes to one of the elevators. Whichever one she takes is three times more likely to be going up than down. Why?

John: "Hi Teacher, What is your favourite movie ?".
Chemistry Teacher: "Indium Cerium Platinum Iodine Oxygen Nitrogen".
Ten seconds later... John replied I got it.

Do you?

Which word is least like the others? Third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth?

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?

A cat, a dog and a monkey were stolen. 3 suspects got caught: Harish, Manoj and Tarun. All we know is each person stole one animal, but we do not know who stole which. Here are the investigation statements. Harish said: Tarun stole the cat. Manoj said: Tarun stole the dog. Tarun said: They both were lying. I did not steal the cat or the dog. Later on, the police found out the man who stole the monkey told a lie. The man who stole the cat told the truth. Can you find out who stole which?

When 99 is considered higher than 100?

The Judge knows that Alamgir was killed by his girlfriend Jasline, but the judge is unsure whether to punish her. Why?

If we change the South-East direction into North and North-East into West and all others similarly.
Can you find out which direction will be in the place of South-West direction?