Dead Reckoning

[Mark A. Mandel]

(My reception of ADS-L seems to be FUBAR at the moment, so I'm looking at
the web archive.)

Another related use of "dead" 'exact' is "dead center", including "top dead
center" and "bottom dead center" (abbr. TDC, BDC, iirc) for, hmm, I think
it's automotive or mechanical terminology for something that revolves in a
vertical plane. At either the 12:00 or the 6:00 position it won't move: in
the former because it's perfectly balanced between falling left and falling
right, and in the latter because it's already in its lowest energy state
and has nowhere to fall to.


-- Mark A. Mandel