tag difference

Question

Pls, I need to understand the difference between the <br> and <br /> tags. I don't understand why both of then work for line breaks and horizontal line at same time in different occasions. Pls, what am I getting wrong?

Answer 1

<br /> is self-closing following XML syntax.

Modern browsers read <br> and process it as <br /> in the backstage.

Therefore the / becomes optional now.

Quick glimpse at XML:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/XML/XML_introduction

Answer 2

Thank you @Gordon.