Meiosis happens when creating sex cells and mitosis is cells that are used for growth and repair of body cells. Meiosis begins with a cell containing 46 chromosomes (2n) and these are replicated to make 92 chromosomes in the cell (4n) these are then divided into two cells each containing 46 (2n) and then again to produce 4 non identical Daughter cells each containing 23 chromosomes (n) however mitosis only divides once so each cell has 46 chromosomes when division is complete and it produces two daughter cells that are genetically identical to the parent and each other