Solution:

Were you thinking of using the fastest person who takes one minute to travel to and fro till everyone has reached the other end? Yes that can be done but it will take 10 + 1 + 7 + 1 + 2 = 21 minutes in total.

If we pay attention towards finding a way to merge the one taking 7 minutes and the one taking 10 minutes, we will have to acknowledge the fact that one of them will also have to return back which will take much more time than 21 minutes.

What if we use the person taking 2 minutes to escort the one taking 1 minutes across? Let's come to the conclusion:

1 and 2 cross the bridge
2 returns with the torch
7 and 10 cross the bridge
1 comes back
1 and 2 cross the bridge

In such a manner, the total time taken will be
2 + 2 + 10 + 1 + 2 = 17 minutes.

Solution:

Steps:
1) Light fire on first bar from both the ends and second bar from one end.

2) After 30 seconds(when first bar gets completely burned out) , burn the second bar from second end as well.

3) When second run completely gets burned , you know its 45 seconds.

Solution:

Put one black rock in one sack and put all the rest in the other one. In such manner you will get about 3/4 probability of surviving.

Solution:

The Lady sitting in the chair has the detector attached to the back of her blouse.

Solution:

There are 3 fruits (1 grapes, 1 apples, and 1 oranges).

Solution:

1. Fill 5 liters jar ( 5l-jar:5, 3l-jar:0)
2. Transfer to 3 liters pail (5l-jar:2, 3l-jar:3)
3. Empty 3 liters jar ( 5l-jar:2, 3l-jar:0)
4. Transfer 2q from 5 pail to 3 pail (5l-jar:0, 3l-jar:2)
5. Fill 5 liters pail(5l-jar:5, 3l-jar:2)
6. Transfer 1q from 5 pail to 3 pail(5l-jar:4, 3l-jar:3)

Solution:

99 matches.

The number of matches will always sum up to one less than the number of players in a knock out tournament. You may calculate it in any manner. Thus 99 matches were played.

Solution:

At each draw, the number of strawberry candies are either decreasing by 2 or not decreasing at all. In the case of orange candies, at each draw, they are either increasing by 1 or decreasing by 1.

Thus on an assumed outset with at least one candy in the jar to begin with, if the number of strawberry candies are 0 or are even in numbers, they will finish off leaving an orange candy at the end. If otherwise, the remaining candy will be a strawberry one.

Solution:

For this answer is 3^0, 3^1, 3^2... That is 1,3,9,27,81,243 and 729.

Solution:

17 min

The initial solution most people will think of is to use the fastest person as an usher to guide everyone across. How long would that take? 10 + 1 + 7 + 1 + 2 = 21 minutes. Is that it? No. That would make this question too simple even as a warm up question.

Let's brainstorm a little further. To reduce the amount of time, we should find a way for 10 and 7 to go together. If they cross together, then we need one of them to come back to get the others. That would not be ideal. How do we get around that? Maybe we can have 1 waiting on the other side to bring the torch back. Ahaa, we are getting closer. The fastest way to get 1 across and be back is to use 2 to usher 1 across. So let's put all this together.

1 and 2 go cross
2 comes back
7 and 10 go across
1 comes back
1 and 2 go across (done)

Total time = 2 + 2 + 10 + 1 + 2 = 17 minutes

Solution:

There can be two possibilities for the given situation.

One is if I run on the perimeter. Then, the lion will eventually catch me as the lion can follow my radius and then his trajectory will be half of the circle and not a spiral. Therefore, the lion will subsequently catch me in a finite amount of time.

Secondly if I don’t run on the perimeter, then clearly, I have an infinite amount of time before the lion catches me.