What does 'do not disturb' do on the iPhone 5?

I've got a new iPhone 5, after having no end of problems with my old Android phone. My Android phone had a silent mode on it, but on my iPhone there's a setting in the settings menu called 'do not disturb'. At first I thought this was the name of iPhones silent mode, but there's a switch on the side of my iPhone which when I use it says the phone's in silent mode, and does mention anything about 'do not disturb'.

So is there a difference between the silent mode and the 'do not disturb' on the iPhone?

It's like when your super busy. But you don't want to turn off your phone completely. You switch the do not disturbed on. Which allows no messages no pops up no alerts no nothing to interrupt what your Doing.

It's basically meant to be used for when your in a meeting/don't want to be disturbed or trying to sleep so you don't get any notifications or sounds so it's like your phone being on silent

Hope this helped!

Do not disturb is a feature where if you turn on or you can choose a turn on certain point of time a day it will actually make it so you do not receive phone calls or text messages. That's why it's called "Do not disturb".

Yes.

Silent mode, just mutes the sounds the notifications makes but you are still alerted (disturbed per sé) when they come in.

Do Not Disturb on the other hand goes one step further in that you will not be alerted when a notification comes. No vibrate, no sound, no lit up display.

Silent, ends incoming calls and puts texts on silent