assembly - What is the difference between unconditional branch and unconditional jump (instructions in MIPS)?

Question

You may look into Wikipedia or short summary for students. Everybody says that there are two instructions for the same thing. But nobody tells why?

Answer 1

Branches allow for conditions. But allowing for conditions takes up more bits in the instruction. Therefore, a branch's address is only 2^16 bits and only allows you to branch 2^15 - 1 instructions backward or 2^15 instructions forward.

A jump is unconditional and the bits saved by leaving out the condition can be used for the address. A jump allows for a 26 bit address and so can jump much further in the code than a branch. At the expense of not being conditional.