Four people need to cross a rickety bridge at night. Unfortunately, they have only one torch and the bridge is too dangerous to cross without one. The bridge is only strong enough to support two people at a time. Not all people take the same time to cross the bridge. Times for each person: 1 min, 2 mins, 7 mins and 10 mins. What is the shortest time needed for all four of them to cross the bridge?

Today is a very icy and cold morning in Newcastle. Mr Shearer, an office bus driver arrived to pick up the employees from the last stop. Shearer suddenly remembers that he needs to pick a newly joined 4miles to the north. Mr Shearer lost his direction compass, a few minutes later Shearer is able to figure that he is moving in the correct direction i.e. north. How did Shearer know that he is moving in the correct direction?

Count the squares in the matchstick puzzle below?

Can you name some countries which do not have the alphabet 'A' in them?

A boy and a girl are sitting on the porch.
"I'm a boy," says the child with black hair.
"I'm a girl," says the child with red hair.
If at least one of them is lying, who is which?

The peacock is a bird that does not lay eggs. How do they get baby peacocks?

A man has eighty-one cows ( numbered 1,2,3...81 as such). The beauty is that cow no. 1 gives 1ltr of milk, cow no. 2 gives 2ltrs of milk and so on. The man wants to equally distribute the cows among his nine sons so that each one of them gets the same quantity of milk.

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

These types of puzzles are known as charades. What you have to do is to find two words that are referred to in the first stanza and the second stanza and put them together to form the third word in the third stanza.

Just for example, if my first refers to 'off' and my second refers to 'ice', then my whole will be the 'office'.

My first is present - future's past -
A time in which your lot is cast.

My second is my first of space
Defining people's present place.

My whole describes a lack of site -
A place without length, breadth, or height.

The dirtier I get, the whiter I look. Who am I?