Everything is laid out on the page in a flow, according to DOM order. Think how a typewriter produces text on a page: top-down, left-to-right. This is the flow.

Everything is laid out on the page in a flow, according to DOM order. Think how a typewriter produces text on a page: top-down, left-to-right. This is the flow. Absolute takes the element out of the flow while relative maintains it in the flow.