What is the difference between mitosis and meiosis

Both are forms of cell division. All 'normal' cells undergo mitosis to produce identical copies of themselves with the same number of chromosomes. This increase in cell number leads to growth/repair of tissue.Meiosis houver is only undergone by germ cells which produce gametes or sex cells. These are not identical copies of the original cell and have half the number of chromosomes. Examples are egg cells and sperm cells, which come together during fertilisation to create a new cell called a zygote with all 46 chromosomes.a