The power of English Language "&" and "and"

What is the difference between "&" and "and"?

& is called the ampersand, it comes from the Latin word for and, "et".

The ampersand "&" is not a word, it's a symbol representing "and".

"&" is used only when it is used between two nouns. for example:
Rita & Gita went out to play.

& is especially common when joining names to indicate a firm or a partnership, for example,
AT&T (American Telephone and Telegraph)
Mr. & Mrs. Jackson

"and" is used when you want to join two sentences.
Gita went to the shop and Rita went out to play.

Note that "and" can be used in any sense. If the first sentence was re-written as "Rita and Gita went to play", it would still be acceptable. However, if the second sentence was rewritten as "Gita went to the shop & Rita went out to play", it would be grammatically wrong.

Whenever you are in doubt as to which one should be used, stick to "and". It is universally applicable.

The "&" and "and" mean different things in movie credits: two writers' names joined with "&" means they collaborated, while "and" means they worked on the scrist at different times.