Use slash after HTML tag

Question

I use a HTML theme for my website. In this theme, there are form tags are shown as <form/>. Why does this theme use a slash after first form tag?

<div class="widget-body"> 
   <div class="widget-main"> 
      <form class="form-search" />
       <input type="text" class="input-medium search-query" /> 
       <button onclick="return false;" class="btn btn-purple btn-small"> 
          Search <i class="icon-search icon-on-right bigger-110"></i> 
       </button> 
      </form>
   </div> 
</div>

Answer 1

In XHTML syntax, an <example /> tag is equivalent to <example></example> tags.

So, your line of code <input type="text" class="input-medium search-query" />, is equivalent to <input type="text" class="input-medium search-query"></input>.