The concept of position can be used to name where or how someone or something is located. The etymological root of the term is found in the Latin word positio .
The idea of absolute , for its part, has several uses. On this occasion we are interested in its meaning as that which is independent and/or complete.
Starting from these notions, we can move forward with the definition of absolute position . This is what the precise location of a site is called by appealing to a geographic coordinate system .
The absolute position of a place, therefore, is its exact location . To determine this position, data is used to locate a precise point on the surface of planet Earth . The relative position , on the other hand, is established by resorting to other points as a reference : thus, the location is linked to the situation of the area with respect to other locations.
It is important to keep in mind that geographic coordinates work as a reference system to locate any terrestrial point through letters, numbers and symbols. Typically, two horizontal position coordinates are used: latitude (which is the distance to the equator) and longitude (the distance to the Greenwich meridian).
Knowing these coordinates, it is possible to determine the absolute position of a place. For example, the absolute position of the American city of Miami is 25°47′00″N 80°13′00″W .
The absolute position also appears in the field of computing . In the CSS language, the absolute position is understood to be the starting point set at the edge of the browser or browser window. Starting from this absolute position, various displacement properties can be used.
In computing, the notions of absolute and relative position are of great importance in many of its fields, generally those that rely heavily on graphic design . Saving the differences in nomenclature, we can also say that storage in main or secondary memory uses these concepts: providing the processor with a defined space in memory is not the same as telling it "store this data in the first available space you find after this point."
For people outside the world of exact sciences, talking about absolute and relative may not mean much, but in these areas they are contrasting ideas, which cannot be exchanged unless we want to deal with chaos. Let's think for a moment about the RAM memory of a computer: the programs and files we use are momentarily stored there, as if it were a table on which we place our notebook, pen and books before doing research work; If we put one element in the exact same point as another, the universe itself would collapse.
In real life, this is impossible: the notebook and one of the books cannot be in exactly the same position; but in RAM, yes, and this error could be "fatal." For this reason, before indicating an absolute position for use, we must be sure that it is available, that there is no part of the operating system there, for example; Failing that, a relative position is always preferable.
Returning to the case of graphic design, locating the different elements such as text boxes and images using absolute position can be convenient if we know in advance the resolution of the screen on which they will be displayed and this will not change; For the rest of the cases, the relative position is the best option, since it allows us to issue statements such as "its width is 30% of the box it is in," instead of "its width is 400 pixels." ».