Which is the rope you never skip with?

In front of you, there are 9 coins. They all look absolutely identical, but one of the coins is fake. However, you know that the fake coin is lighter than the rest, and in front of you is a balance scale. What is the least number of weightings you can use to find the counterfeit coin?

A father is locked up in jail. His wife has gone bankrupt. Their male child has to sell his hotel in order to gain some money. Yet their girl child does not care and is quite happy.

How can someone be so rude?

Can you find the missing letter in the sequence?
S - T - I - L - ? - T - F - Y - C

What number comes next in the series?

5 15 5 18 5 24 14 20 _

Many have heard it, but nobody has ever seen it, and it will not speak back until spoken to. What is it?

You can take four of the five letters out of this word, but the pronunciation never changes. What is the word?

The below mentioned letters have been placed in a order using a logic.

DEAD, BALL, FEAR, SHOP

Can you find the logic?

A California farmer owns a beautiful pear tree. He supplies the fruit to a nearby grocery store. The store owner calls the farmer to see how much fruit is available for him to buy. The farmer knows the main trunk has 24 branches. Each branch has exactly 12 boughs and each bough has exactly 6 twigs. Since each twig bears one piece of fruit, how many plums will the farmer be able to deliver?

He digs out tiny caves and stores gold and silver in them. He also built bridges of silver and made crowns of gold. They are the smallest you could imagine. Sooner or later everybody needs his help, yet many people are afraid to let him help them. Who is he?