title: Partial ordering of events in a distributed system
body: <p>I was wondering if someone could explain in layman's terms what partial ordering of events are in a distributed system? Also, what is total ordering?</p>
  
  <p>I would really appreciate this. I've looked all over the web and all I can find are mathematical equations defining partial and total ordering, but not in the context of a distributed system.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks very much</p>