For the first time when you hear the children's riddle “what ends day and night,” you come to a slight bewilderment. Obviously, the answer should be unequivocal regarding both parts of the daily cycle. But what can be in common between day and night? These are full antipodes, such as heat and cold, heaven and earth, ice and flame. However, this verbal puzzle, addressed to younger students, is solved easily and simply.
Logical explanation
So what ends day and night? Consider this issue from a practical point of view. First, let's try to define each of the concepts that make up the basis of the puzzle. Without touching on the laws of rotation of our planet around its axis, we simply say: day is the daylight, that is, the period when a bright sun shines in the sky.
In the afternoon, the sun begins to slowly tilt toward the horizon, dusk or evening gradually sets in, and then a dark night comes. After a few hours, as soon as the sun rises, it will again become light. This time of day is called morning.
But have we come nearer to solving the riddle “what ends day and night”? According to previous reasoning, the end of the day is evening, and after night comes morning. It turns out that this question has two answers. Something is wrong here, we went the wrong way. After all, we need only one option.
Joking subtext
What did the person who invented this riddle mean? What else ends day and night, except morning and evening? And let's forget about sunsets and sunrises, darkness and a bright sun. The riddle, nevertheless, is not intended for serious, wise life experience for adults, but for schoolchildren.
Consider the words “day” and “night” as part of speech. Each of them is a noun. The first is the masculine gender of the second declension, the second is the feminine gender of the third declension. A common, that is, the same sign of both words is the ending. Now we can confidently answer the tricky question "what ends day and night." They end in a soft sign!