Definition: When the piston has reached the lowest point in the cylinder, the connecting rod will be vertical. The piston, therefore, will be at the bottom of its stroke and the connecting rod will be in the dead center position.

Examples: The swept volume can be measured by the formula: area of the base multiplied by the height, where the distance traveled by the piston from bottom-dead-center to top-dead-center is the height and the area of the base is the piston area displacement.