What is the difference between / and ~/ relative paths?

Question

I thought that both types would bring you to the root folder, but apparently, they work differently, once you do a URL rewrite.

For instance, I normally use / which I know will bring you to the root folder and it does when a URL has been rewritten.

When someone else tried to use ~/ after a URL has been rewritten, then the path fails to find the file. Why is that?

Answer 1

/ will take you back to the root of your website.

~/ will take you to the home folder of your application on the website.

If your application is in a folder called myApp, for example, so the URL looks like this

http://www.YourSite.com/myApp/ 

and in your application you use ~/Scripts/jquery.js then the path referenced will be

http://www.YourSite.com/myApp/Scripts/jquery.js

whereas just using / would send you all the way back to the root of the website

http://www.YourSite.com/Scripts/jquery.js