Difference between margin and padding?

Question

What exactly is the difference between margin and padding in CSS? It really doesn\'t seem to serve much purpose. Could you give me an examp

Answer 1

One key thing that is missing in the answers here:

Top/Bottom margins are collapsible.

So if you have a 20px margin at the bottom of an element and a 30px margin at the top of the next element, the margin between the two elements will be 30px rather than 50px. This does not apply to left/right margin or padding.