Comment by kristoff_it

The "<div/>" syntax is short for "<div></div>" in XHTML lingo.

In HTML void tags only have a start tag and don't close at all.

    <meta foo bar>
    <img bar baz>

And so forth. There's a hardcoded list of void tags in HTML.

Horribly dumb design idea if you ask me, but it is what it is.