First relative path of tilde (~) not recognized?

I am taking MVC.net workout and I notice something strange about the tilde.

I have a list of script references that looks something like this:

<script type="text/javascript" src="~/Scripts/jquery-1.8.2.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="~/Scripts/easing.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="~/Scripts/bootstrap.js"></script>

      

        
        
        
      

    

But when I run the app on my machine, jquery didn't work. Checking the source code, I notice that the first tilde was not converted as it should:

(source:)

<script type="text/javascript" src="~/Scripts/jquery-1.8.2.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="/Scripts/easing.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="/Scripts/bootstrap.js"></script>

      

        
        
        
      

    

It can be easily fixed by simply adding a link to nothing at the top of the list:

<script type="text/javascript" src="~/Scripts/nothing.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="~/Scripts/jquery-1.8.2.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="~/Scripts/easing.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="~/Scripts/bootstrap.js"></script>

      

        
        
        
      

    

But I was wondering if any of you have seen anything like this or explained what's going on?