Why is meiosis known as reduction division?

The ploidy number does not change during mitosis, also known as the equational division. For instance, a diploid (2n) human cell undergoing mitosis yields daughter cells that are both diploid (2n) and exact replicas of their mother cell. In addition, the number of chromosomes shared by the mother and daughter cells is 46 in the case of humans.

In humans, meiosis results in a halving of the ploidy number (2n to n) and the chromosome number (46 to 23). This process is known as the reductional division. It is noteworthy that meiosis only happens in gametes.

When the sperm cell fertilizes the egg cell, the reduction of the ploidy number and chromosome number is crucial to restoring the normal ploidy number (2n) and chromosome number (46). (23 from the sperm + 23 from the egg).

Meiosis is known as reduction division because it reduces the chromosome number by half in the resulting daughter cells. This reduction is crucial for sexual reproduction as it ensures that when two gametes fuse during fertilization, the resulting zygote will have the correct chromosome number for the species.