What mathematical symbol can be put between 5 and 9, to get a number bigger than 5 and smaller than 9?

There are 3 apples in the basket and you take away 2. How many apples do you have now?

Henry has been caught stealing cattle and is brought into town for justice. The judge is his ex-wife Gretchen, who wants to show him some sympathy, but the law calls for two shots to be taken at Henry from close range. To make things a little better for Henry, Gretchen tells him she will place two bullets into a six-chambered revolver in successive order. She will spin the chamber, close it, and take one shot. If Henry is still alive, she will then either take another shot, or spin the chamber again before shooting.

Henry is a bit incredulous that his ex-wife would carry out the punishment, and a bit sad that she was always such a rule follower. He steels himself as Gretchen loads the chambers, spins the revolver, and pulls the trigger. Whew! It was blank. Then Gretchen asks, 'Do you want me to pull the trigger again, or should I spin the chamber a second time before pulling the trigger?'

What should Henry choose?

It was a dark stormy night and a couple were in a car driving madly to a city. The car broke down and the husband had to go get help from someone who spoke his language. He was afraid to leave his wife alone in the car so he locked the car before leaving. When he came back, the car was in the same state as he had left it but his wife was dead, there was blood on the floor and there was a stranger in the car. What happened?

John went to meet his friend Jacob, but when he was about to reach the main gate, John notices that Jacob had a mighty dog who was fastened to the tree. The chain is long enough that it allows the dog to reach the main gate.

How can the John reach the main gate?

Solve the puzzle by telling what does below picture means.

You are given a cube that is made with the help of 10x10x10 smaller cubes summing up to a total of 1000 smaller cubes. You are asked to take off one layer of the cubes.
How many remain now?

Sweet & very intelligent katty has 8 puppets(Jane Bird Barbie Angel Colleen Nora Lass Missy).
All puppets are of different size. She arrange all puppets to face towards the guest and tell the guess the following clues :

* Jane has three puppets bigger on its left side
* Bird has two puppets smaller on its left side
* Barbie has one puppet bigger on its right side
* Angel has two puppets smaller on its right side
* Colleen has one puppet bigger on its left side
* Nora has one puppet smaller on its left side
* Lass has four puppets bigger on its right side
* Missy has three puppets smaller on its right side

Also some puppets are inside the bigger puppets.

Assuming you are the guest , can you tell the katty how the puppets are arranged ?

Using the clues below, what four numbers am I thinking of?

The sum of all the numbers is 31.
One number is odd.
The highest number minus the lowest number is 7.
If you subtract the middle two numbers, it equals two.
There are no duplicate numbers.

Your last good ping-pong ball fell into a narrow metal pipe embedded one foot deep in concrete.
How can you get it out undamaged, if all the tools you have are your tennis paddle, shoe laces, and plastic water bottle, which does not fit into the pipe?