Explain what the version control system Git is and how it is used in collaborative development.

Git is a distributed version control system that allows tracking changes in code and other project files. It stores the history of changes, which helps developers work collaboratively without overwriting each other's work.

In collaborative development, Git allows:

• Creating branches for developing new features without risking damage to the main version.
• Merging changes from different participants through merge or rebase operations.
• Rolling back changes if something goes wrong.
• Viewing the change history and understanding who changed what.

Example of basic commands:

git clone <repository>  # clone the project
git checkout -b feature_branch  # create and switch to a new branch
git add .  # stage changes
git commit -m "Added a new feature"  # commit changes
git push origin feature_branch  # push the branch to the server