What is the difference between mitosis and meiosis?

Mitosis is cell division as a result of normal cell growth that occurs in all tissue types to replace old cells as they become senescent. This result of mitotic cell division is two daughter cells with identical genetic material. Meiosis however, is cell division for sex. This cell division occurs in the testes or ovaries and produces four daughter cells called gametes (sperm cells or an egg cells) which each contain half the amount of genetic material compared to the original diploid cell. This is essential because when an egg and a sperm cell combine during sex, the resultant fertilised cell, or zygote, will then have a half plus a half = a whole set of genetic material (the genome).