According to kate, what is the secret of perfect popcorn popping?

The answer is moisture content. The right moisture content for the perfect popping of popcorn is 13.5% to 15%. Perfect popping means that there is the least percentage of unpopped popcorn, a good flake size, and greatest expansion volume. Popcorn pops when the water content in the grain is heated to steam that expands and explodes.

relative dating involves things like higher layers are most recent than rocks lower in the sequence. this can be extended to the known sequence of fossils. rocks containing rabbit fossils are later than those containing dinosaur fossils.  

absolute dating methods mainly use radioactive elements that have known rates of decay and produce recognizable products. for example potassium 40 decays to produce argon. once a rock has solidified the argon is trapped. by measuring the argon and potassium0 you can get an accurate number for the age.  

some other methods are good for archaeological ages. dendrochronology involves recognizing the sequence of tree rings. the orientation of magnetized particles in baked clay can be used to date a fire.

hope this .. .